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COVID-19 vaccines and beyond

Cellular & Molecular Immunology volume 21, pages 207–209 (2024)Cite this article

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Hundreds of vaccines have been developed worldwide for Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the cause of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), since the beginning of the pandemic. These vaccines have saved innumerable lives and contributed to partial control of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the vaccines approved for clinical use exhibit satisfactory initial protection rates against corresponding strains. However, vaccine protection declines over time, with almost all vaccines falling below 50% protection after 6 months [1]. In the case of natural infections, protection lasts longer, but the incidence of reinfection is also quite high.

Unsatisfactory vaccination coverage against SARS-CoV-2 is not the first challenge of vaccinology. Over many decades, influenza vaccines have never been able to elicit long-lasting immunity against seasonal influenza virus strains. The RSV vaccine, which was approved by the FDA of the USA a few months ago, provides favorable protection against severe lower respiratory tract disease, but its efficacy in preventing infection remains unsatisfactory. Experts in the field have categorized viruses such as influenza, RSV and SARS-CoV-2 as nonsystemic respiratory viruses because they have only mucosal replication periods and no subsequent systemic spread of infectious virions. A commonality of nonsystemically replicating respiratory viruses is that they tend to repeatedly reinfect people, closely linked to the fact that none of the predominantly mucosal respiratory viruses have ever been effectively controlled by vaccines.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82388201 to JH), the National Key R&D Program of China (2020YFA0803500 to JH), the CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (CIFMS) (2019-I2M-5-062 to JH), the Fujian Province Central to Local Science and Technology Development Special Program (2022L3079 to JH), and the Fu-Xia-Quan Zi-Chuang District Cooperation Program (3502ZCQXT2022003 to JH). The funders had no role in the decision to publish or the preparation of the manuscript. We thank Lu Zhou (Xiamen University) for proofreading and editing the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, Innovation Center for Cell Biology, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian, China

    Yiyuan Liu, Danying Li & Jiahuai Han

  2. Laboratory Animal Center, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian, China

    Jiahuai Han

  3. Research Unit of Cellular Stress of CAMS, Cancer Research Center of Xiamen University, Xiang’an Hospital of Xiamen University, School of Medicine, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian, China

    Jiahuai Han

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  1. Yiyuan Liu
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YL, DL and JH contributed to the writing of the manuscript and approved the submitted version.

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Correspondence to Jiahuai Han.

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Liu, Y., Li, D. & Han, J. COVID-19 vaccines and beyond. Cell Mol Immunol 21, 207–209 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41423-024-01132-2

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