I can't wait till this Covid-19 vaccine, Covaxin, comes to the US. This is what I'm waiting for. [View all]

[peoli]

Covaxin works by teaching the immune system to make antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The antibodies attach to viral proteins, such as the so-called spike proteins that stud its surface.


Spikes

Spike

protein

gene

To create Covaxin, Bharat Biotech used a sample of the coronavirus isolated by India’s National Institute of Virology.

Killing the Virus
Once the researchers produced large stocks of the coronaviruses, they doused them with a chemical called beta-propiolactone. The compound disabled the coronaviruses by bonding to their genes. The inactivated coronaviruses could no longer replicate. But their proteins, including spike, remained intact.

The researchers then drew off the inactivated viruses and mixed them with a tiny amount of an aluminum-based compound called an adjuvant. Adjuvants stimulate the immune system to boost its response to a vaccine.

Inactivated viruses have been used for over a century. Jonas Salk used them to create his polio vaccine in the 1950s, and they’re the bases for vaccines against other diseases including rabies and hepatitis A.

Full article

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/health/bharat-biotech-covid-19-vaccine.html