Live vaccine and dead vaccine: Virologist explains the difference in an easy-to-understand way - and the effect
Created: 02/05/2022, 06:48 am
By: Patrick Mayer
Foreseeable to be vaccinated in Germany: the inactivated corona vaccine Novavax.
© JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP
The inactivated vaccine Novavax against the corona virus will soon be administered in Germany.
But what exactly is an inactivated vaccine?
And what is the difference to the mRNA vaccines?
A virologist explains.
Munich/Giessen - Novavax should come, Novavax will come: The Standing Vaccination Commission (StiKo) spoke out in Germany during the Omikron wave for vaccinations with the dead vaccine - initially for people over 18 years of age.
Novavax is a so-called protein vaccine with an effect enhancer.
According to the StiKo, two vaccine doses three weeks apart are required for a basic immunization.
Vaccination is not recommended for pregnant women.
Corona dead vaccine Novavax is coming: virologist names differences to mRNA vaccines
As far as the first information.
But what is that actually, an inactivated vaccine?
And what is the difference to the mRNA vaccines, such as those launched by BionTech or Moderna in the coronavirus pandemic?
Friedemann Weber, Professor and Director of Virology at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen, answered these questions in an interview with
FOCUS Online
.
To classify: Weber researches at the Hessian university, among other things, those same corona viruses and influenza viruses.
Differences between live vaccines and inactivated vaccines (oversimplified):
Live vaccines:
The so-called mRNA vaccines contain weakened organisms.
They trigger a so-called T-cell response.
The cytotoxic T cells that are formed kill already infected cells in the body.
Live vaccines are therefore not completely killed parts of the virus.
They ensure that the human organism forms antibodies against the virus.
And they kill already infected cells.
Killed vaccines:
These vaccines also cause the human organism to form antibodies against the virus in order to protect itself against it.
The vaccine does not contain any "live" parts of the virus.
The active ingredient Novavax is such a dead vaccine.
“Live vaccines are always live, in quotes because non-living organisms in the true sense that are attenuated.
So much so that they can only lose the race with the immune system," said the scientist in an interview with the news portal from Munich.
He differentiated: "An inactivated vaccine, on the other hand, loses the race with the immune system because it was killed before it was administered."
Corona inactivated vaccine Novavax: virologist describes live vaccines as “more effective”
What other differences are there?
According to the virologist, live vaccines are “more effective because they (...) trigger a so-called T-cell response.
In a narrower sense, the so-called cytotoxic T cells.
These are cells that kill infected cells," explained the Gießen professor to
FOCUS Online
.
An inactivated vaccine loses the race with the immune system.
Virologist Friedemann Weber (University of Giessen)
Live vaccines would not only generate antibodies, or trigger the formation of such antibodies, he said: "But they also trigger the formation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes."
In the video: Novavax: New inactivated vaccine is coming - these are the first facts
“It is different with the classic inactivated vaccine.
It actually only induces antibodies,” explained Weber.
If it is administered, the body also produces antibodies against the insidious virus.
In his opinion, Novavax, for example, is "not a classic inactivated vaccine because the spike protein was genetically engineered," he said.
Weber explained in a simplified way: "A classic inactivated vaccine is what the Chinese did, for example.
You just take the SARS-coronavirus-2, chemically kill it, mix that with an adjuvant
and
administer that. It's classic.
And that's the first thing you can do when you have a new virus.
Because that's the quickest and most uncomplicated way."
(pm)
