Injected vs Nasal vaccines: Which mode of COVID vaccine will be better in the long run?

Injected vs Nasal vaccines: Which mode of COVID vaccine will be better in the long run?

The second phase of COVID-19 vaccine roll out has begun in India, which not only includes the young and the healthy but also allows senior citizens above the age of 60 and select people over 45 years of age to get the vaccine jab. While the current mode of COVID vaccines is limited to injected vaccines, prospects of nasal vaccines are also being discussed in and around the world.

Injected vs nasal vaccines

Injected or traditional vaccines are injected into the skin with the help of injections (needles). Unlike traditional vaccines, nasal vaccines target the virus present in the mucosal membranes and are given via nose, rather than orally or through the arm.

How do nasal vaccines work?

Usually nasal vaccines are sprayed into the nostrils. It can be done with the help of a syringe with no needle, a nasal spray, liquid medicine or special aerosol delivery.

While the virus commonly enters your body through your nose, the vaccine then intercepts the virus and causes your immune system to make proteins in your blood and in your nose to combat the virus. This also prevents the virus from growing.

How are nasal vaccines different from the injected vaccines?

Considering most viruses, including the ones associated with SARs-COV-2, enter the body through the mucosa and infect the cells and molecules present in the mucosal membranes, nasal vaccines are seen as an effective solution for the same.

On the contrary, intramuscular vaccines or injected vaccines fail to trigger such immune response from the mucosa and depend on immune cells from other parts of the body.

Apart from that, nasal vaccines are easier to administer and may provide easy immunity. An effective nasal jab can not only protect against COVID-19, but also directly interacts with T-cells that exist in the nose and the throat and targets the immune cells present in the mucosal membrane.

As per Bharat Biotech, their intranasal vaccine candidate, which is soon to enter Phase I clinical trials, has proven effective and is said to provide high levels of protections in mice studies.

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Benefits of nasal vaccines as compared to injected vaccines

Besides providing better immunity prospects, nasal vaccines can be self-administered and have fewer chances of side effects, as per experts.

It is cost effective and requires lesser resources as compared to the number of syringes and transportation cost needed for injected vaccines.

Additionally, there is a lesser chance of our body rejecting the effectiveness of the vaccine, as it can be immediately absorbed by the blood vessels.

Bharat Biotech to begin clinical trials of COVID-19 nasal vaccine

On January 8, Bharat Biotech sought permission from the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) to conduct Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials of the intranasal vaccine. As on Tuesday, the firm received the approval for phase 1 trials and are set to begin the clinical trials by next week. The trials will be conducted in Patna, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Nagpur. According to the Central Trail Registry of India (CTRI) on 175 participants.

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Mice Cured of Diabetes through New Human Stem Cell Therapy

Diabetes is a worldwide chronic disease that in the U.S. alone affects just under 30 million people, and that's not even counting those that are unaware of their condition.

Those with diabetes struggle with producing or managing insulin levels in their bodies. Now, a new strategy developed by scientists from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has effectively cured mice injected with diabetes.

Their study was published in Nature Biotechnology on Monday.

How does it work?

The new therapy works by implanting cells directly into the mice so that they secrete the hormone that helps produce and balance insulin.

Lead author of the study, Jeffrey Millman, said "These mice had very severe diabetes with blood sugar readings of more than 500 milligrams per deciliter of blood — levels that could be fatal for a person — and when we gave the mice the insulin-secreting cells, within two weeks their blood glucose levels had returned to normal and stayed that way for many months." 

If all works well in the human body, insulin is produced by beta cells in the pancreas, however, those who have diabetes don't produce enough of the hormone. The most common way of managing the condition is through regularly injecting insulin into the bloodstream. More recently, researchers have been working on ways to convert human stem cells into beta cells.

Millman's team at Washington University has now worked on improving this second technique. The team has managed to reduce the number of unwanted cells, making the conversion cells very specific and target-oriented. The team ultimately managed to create a higher percentage of beta cells that also worked more efficiently.

As Millman explained himself "Previously, we would identify various proteins and factors and sprinkle them on the cells to see what would happen. As we have better understood the signals, we’ve been able to make that process less random."

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     

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Cancer 'vaccine' shows promise in human trial of lymphoma patients

An experimental cancer "vaccine" showed promising results in a small clinical trial of patients with lymphoma, according to a study.

Researchers tested the treatment in 11 patients with lymphoma. Their results were successful enough to warrant another clinical trial in March on lymphoma patients as well as breast and head-and-neck cancer.

Researchers said some patients in the initial human trial went into full remission for months or even years.

The treatment "has broad implications for multiple types of cancer," said lead author, the director of the lymphoma immunotherapy program. "This method could also increase the success of other immunotherapies such as checkpoint blockade.

They refer to it as a vaccine because it causes a person's immune system to fight the disease, though it's not preventive like the flu shot. In this case, the treatment teaches the body to recognize tumors and attack them.

Researchers created the treatment directly inside the tumor. To do this, they injected one tumor with a stimulant to recruit immune cells, treated the tumor with a low dose of radiation then injected it with a stimulant to activate immune cells. These activated immune cells then travel throughout the body, killing tumors wherever they find them.

In three of the patients, the treatment shrunk not only the tumor that was treated but also other ones throughout the body, putting these patients into remission.

"It's really promising, and the fact you get not only responses in treated areas, but areas outside the field [of treatment with radiation] is really significant," said a Dr. who was not involved in the study and is working on a similar treatment.

While promising, the effect was observed in only three people and will need to be tested in larger trials before even going before the Food and Drug Administration for review.

The Dr. said the results are exciting but cautioned more research needs to be done. 

"It's definitely proof of concept, but larger studies are definitely needed and additional strategies to try to get more than three out of 11 patients to respond," he said,  who is also developing a lymphoma vaccine, though with a slightly different approach.

Researchers for decades have tried but failed to create cancer vaccines. New research on immunotherapy, or training a person's immune system to fight disease, has reinvigorated their efforts.
The vaccine activates dendritic cells, which are responsible for initiating immune responses. These cells then instruct T-cells to attack tumors in a person's body, like generals instructing soldiers how to fight.

"Generals don't really fight wars, they make the plans," the Dr. said.

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Stroke Survivor Walks Again After Doctors Inject Stem Cells Directly into Brain

Researchers  were “stunned” at the positive results they obtained after injecting stem cells directly into stroke patients’ brains. The discovery has created a talking point in the neuroscience community, causing researchers to re-visit and re-evaluate the notion that brain damage is permanent and irreversible.

Surgical Procedure

18 stroke patients that were at the six-month mark—the ‘plateau stages’ of their recovery, which is where, typically, no foreseeable improvements in their conditions can occur—were selected for the study.

Patients at this stage are impaired when it comes to moving their arms and legs. As such, they are usually taken out of therapy, as their brain circuits are believed to be damaged beyond repair.

Surgeons drilled holes into several locations of each patient’s skull and injected the stem cells into them. The procedure required patients to be operated on while they were conscious. Despite the seemingly bluntness of the procedure, surgeons say that the method is the simplest as far as brain surgery is concerned. 

Patients were even sent home on the same day as the surgery.

Stunning Results

Headaches, nausea, and vomiting were some of the side-effects experienced by the patients after the procedure. Tests that measured each of the patients’ speech, vision, and motor ability were then conducted one, six, and twelve months after the surgery.

The lead author and chairperson of Neurosurgery, was surprised to see that seven out of the 18 patients that underwent the treatment showed great improvement. Recovery for these seven patients, he says, was not minimal. He mentions a 71-year-old wheelchair-bound patient that was able to walk again.

Despite the positive results of the procedure,  a professor of Neurosurgery, notes that much more has to be done in order to confirm the results of the surgery. Further research is necessary in order to fully determine the true effect of the stem cells in stimulating the changes, and he notes that it is possible that the procedure induced a placebo effect.

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Gum infection may be behind Alzheimer's disease

A new study published  found that gum infection could be a potential risk factor of Alzheimer’s disease. 

The bacteria, Porphyromonasgingivalis, known as Pg, causes the gum infection chronic periodontitis, causing chronic inflammation and potential loss of teeth, it was reported . 

The same bacteria was further found in 51 out of 53 brain autopsies of Alzheimer’s disease patients, according to new research.

The team also tested blocking the bacteria in mice by injecting small molecules targeting Pg, to inhibit it and found that it could reduce neurodegeneration in the brain, showing a potential new way to tackle Alzheimer's disease. 


According to researchers, the study “sheds light on an unexpected driver of Alzheimer’s pathology -- the bacterium commonly associated with chronic gum disease.”

Researcher further added that it also shows a “promising approach” to address the disease. 

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                    PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO  VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/       
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