Upcoming SARS-CoV-2 vaccine: expectations and reality

COVID-19 has created an unprecedented challenge as the world braces itself with the hope that a vaccine can be developed without delay. The crisis has accelerated international response and led to the development of over a hundred SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, of which many are currently under clinical trials. In the absence of a definitive treatment, vaccination possibly remains the most effective alternative to prevent COVID. The vaccine encoding the SARS-CoV-2 surface spike (S) glycoprotein is mostly chosen as the optimal target for many candidate SARS-CoV-2 vaccines for cumulatively neutralising antibodies and T-cell responses to CoV-2.1 The measurement of serum neutralising antibody level is considered to be a key correlate of protection; it should ideally correspond to plasma viral neutralising activity and fairly correlate to antiviral immunity.2 3 Keeping the past experiences in mind, many issues remain yet to be discussed. Recent history points to two other coronaviruses, the 2003 SARS and 2012 MERS, for which there are still no effective vaccines available. SARS-CoV-2 is fairly similar to previous SARS-CoV based on phylogenetic analysis, …