COVID-19 Vaccination in Pediatrics: Was It Valuable and Successful?

BACKGROUND: The mass vaccination of children against coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) has been frequently debated. The risk-benefit assessment of COVID-19 vaccination versus infection in children has also been debated. AIM: This systematic review looked for answers to the question "was the vaccination of our children valuable and successful?". METHODS: The search strategy of different articles in the literature was based on medical subject headings. Screening and selection were based on inclusion/exclusion criteria. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The search results revealed that the majority of the reported adverse events after COVID-19 vaccination in pediatrics were mild to moderate, with few being severe. Injection site discomfort, fever, headache, cough, lethargy, and muscular aches and pains were the most prevalent side effects. Few clinical studies recorded significant side effects, although the majority of these adverse events had nothing to do with vaccination. In terms of efficacy, COVID-19 disease protection was achieved in 90-95% of cases for mRNA vaccines, in 50-80% of cases for inactivated vaccines, and in 58-92% of cases for adenoviral-based vaccines in children and adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: Based on available data, COVID-19 immunizations appear to be safe for children and adolescents. Furthermore, multiple studies have proven that different types of vaccines can provide excellent protection against COVID-19 in pediatric populations. The efficacy of vaccines against new SARS-CoV-2 variants and the reduction in vaccine-related long-term adverse events are crucial for risk-benefit and cost-effectiveness assessments; therefore, additional safety studies are required to confirm the long-term safety and effectiveness of vaccinations in children.

COVID-19 signalome: Potential therapeutic interventions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered intensive research and development of drugs and vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 during the last two years. The major success was especially observed with development of vaccines based on viral vectors, nucleic acids and whole viral particles, which have received emergent authorization leading to global mass vaccinations. Although the vaccine programs have made a big impact on COVID-19 spread and severity, emerging novel variants have raised serious concerns about vaccine efficacy. Due to the urgent demand, drug development had originally to rely on repurposing of antiviral drugs developed against other infectious diseases. For both drug and vaccine development the focus has been mainly on SARS-CoV-2 surface proteins and host cell receptors involved in viral attachment and entry. In this review, we expand the spectrum of SARS-CoV-2 targets by investigating the COVID-19 signalome. In addition to the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein, the envelope, membrane, and nucleoprotein targets have been subjected to research. Moreover, viral proteases have presented the possibility to develop different strategies for the inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 replication and spread. Several signaling pathways involving the renin-angiotensin system, angiotensin-converting enzymes, immune pathways, hypoxia, and calcium signaling have provided attractive alternative targets for more efficient drug development.

COVID-19 signalome: Pathways for SARS-CoV-2 infection and impact on COVID-19 associated comorbidity.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been the focus of research the past two years. The major breakthrough was made by discovering pathways related to SARS-CoV-2 infection through cellular interaction by angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE2) and cytokine storm. The presence of ACE2 in lungs, intestines, cardiovascular tissues, brain, kidneys, liver, and eyes shows that SARS-CoV-2 may have targeted these organs to further activate intracellular signalling pathways that lead to cytokine release syndrome. It has also been reported that SARS-CoV-2 can hijack coatomer protein-I (COPI) for S protein retrograde trafficking to the endoplasmic reticulum-Golgi intermediate compartment (ERGIC), which, in turn, acts as the assembly site for viral progeny. In infected cells, the newly synthesized S protein in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is transported first to the Golgi body, and then from the Golgi body to the ERGIC compartment resulting in the formation of specific a motif at the C-terminal end. This review summarizes major events of SARS-CoV-2 infection route, immune response following host-cell infection as an important factor for disease outcome, as well as comorbidity issues of various tissues and organs arising due to COVID-19. Investigations on alterations of host-cell machinery and viral interactions with multiple intracellular signaling pathways could represent a major factor in more effective disease management.