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The early trials of the Covid-19 vaccine that is being developed by the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer have shown promising and safe results.
The results of phase I and II clinical trials were published in Nature and the journal of Science Board.
Pfizer is using the technique that will fight the virus by alerting messenger RNA to elicit immune responses.
Findings
According to the report, RNA vaccines provide flexibility in the design and expression of vaccine antigens. The RNA can imitate antigen structures and expression during natural infection.
Moreover, they are considered safe because RNA is only transiently expressed and metabolized. These can subsequently be eliminated by natural mechanisms.
The Bnt162b1 vaccine candidate, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, incorporates nucleoside-modified RNA, that is required for the production of large amounts of antigen and for robust immune responses.
It also encodes the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, a key target of virus-neutralizing antibodies.
The researchers stated that the vaccine is safe with only mild side effects that appear with the increased dosage seven days post-vaccination.
United States administration has already secured access to 300 million doses of the experimental vaccine which will likely arrive in early 2021.
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