Coronavirus Vaccine: Got great news, now corona vaccine is being made from the plant. 1 News Track English

Coronavirus Vaccine live news: There are currently two types of vaccines available to protect against corona virus. One is the new technology mRNA vaccine and the other is the traditional technology vaccine in which the inactivated virus has been used. Now for the first time, successful work has been done on such a vaccine which is plant based vaccine i.e. made from plant.

The vaccine has shown positive results in trials and has been found to be 71 per cent effective against corona virus-borne diseases and 100 per cent effective against serious illness and death. This plant-based vaccine has been jointly developed by Canadian biotechnological company Medicago and British-American multinational pharma company Glaxo Smith Kline.

What is plant based vaccine

A plant-based vaccine means that researchers have extracted part of the vaccine’s ingredients from plants. The plant used in this vaccine is similar to tobacco. Whose botanical name is Nicotiana benthamiana. This plant has been used because it is not affected by the infection of many types of viruses.

This means that researchers can use the fossils of the leaves of this plant to make antigens. Explain that the main element in vaccines is antigen. Antigens are the parts of viruses and vaccines that activate our immune system. In the case of corona, the spike protein acts as an antigen.

That’s why vaccines try to mimic the virus’s spike protein. But each vaccine has its own different approach to work. For example, Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine uses a modified virus to introduce spike proteins into our bodies. The covaccine works by inactivating the corona virus, whereas the vaccine from Pfizer or Moderna uses a genetic code for the spike protein. All these vaccines which make spike proteins, our immune system considers them as invaders and destroys them. This is a kind of practice and when the corona virus actually strikes, the immune system is already sitting ready.

Medicago’s way

The method of Medicago vaccine is different. In this, the genetic code is inserted in the plant itself so that it makes the spike protein. This code serves to guide the way in which plant cells read that code and start making spike proteins in excess. These spike proteins group together to form virus-like molecules (VLPs) that accumulate in plant leaves. This cycle is completed in four days and thus the antigen used in Medicago’s vaccine is made.

what happened in trial

Phase III trials of the plant-based vaccine have been conducted in six countries among 24 thousand adults, in which its efficacy was found to be 71 percent. According to Dr Brian Ward, Medical Officer of Medicago, the plant-based vaccine produces a stronger immune response than other vaccines. This vaccine has been found to be 75.3 percent effective against the delta variant of Corona, while it was found to be 89 percent effective on the gamma variant.