| KP.1 and KP.2 • Evolved from the JN1 Omicron variant, and are responsible for the recent surge in COVID-19 in India. • Highly transmissible strains, but no significant increase in hospitalizations/severe cases. • As of December 2023, a total of 220.67 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered. |
- Indian Immunologicals Ltd (IIL), based in Hyderabad, in partnership with Griffith University, Australia, has developed a needle-free intranasal booster vaccine against SARS-CoV-2.
- The live-attenuated booster was created using “codon de-optimisation” technology, a method that modifies the frequency of under-represented codon pairs without altering amino acid sequences.
- This approach allows for efficient virus attenuation, offering a faster and safer alternative to conventional methods, which typically take several years.
- Codon de-optimisation technology has the potential of targeted attenuation of microorganisms for use as vaccine candidates.
| • Codon: It is a DNA or RNA sequence of three nucleotides (a trinucleotide) that forms a unit of genomic information encoding a particular amino acid or signalling the termination of protein synthesis (stop signals). There are 64 different codons: 61 specify amino acids and 3 are used as stop signals. • Codon De-optimisation: It is a technique that alters the frequency of certain codons in a gene to slow down protein production, weakening a virus for use in vaccines without changing the protein’s amino acid sequence. This method helps create safer and more effective live vaccines. |
Dig Deeper: Compare different vaccine technologies like viral vector, mRNA, Protein subunit, live attenuated and DNA Vaccines.
