RESUMEN
Background: More than 12 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine administrations and over 630 million natural infections should have developed adequate levels of herd immunity over the last three years. However, there have been many new waves of coronavirus infections. The development of safe and effective vaccines to control breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections remain an urgent priority. We have developed a recombinant VSV vector-based vaccine to fulfill this worldwide need. Method(s): We have used a recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV)-based prime-boost immunization strategy to develop an effective COVID-19 recall vaccine candidate. We have constructed an attenuated recombinant VSV genome carrying the full-length Spike protein gene of SARS-CoV-2. Adding the honeybee melittin signal peptide (msp) at the N-terminus enhanced the protein expression and adding the VSV G protein transmembrane domain and the cytoplasmic tail (Gtc) at the C-terminus of the Spike protein allowed efficient incorporation of the Spike protein into pseudotype VSV. Result(s): In immunized mice, rVSV with chimeric rVSV-msp-S-Gtc induced high levels of potent neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) and CD8+ T cell responses, while the full-length Spike with Gtc proved to be the superior immunogen. More importantly, rVSV-msp-S-Gtc-vaccinated animals were completely protected from subsequent SARS-CoV-2 challenges. Furthermore, rVSV-Wuhan and rVSV-Delta vaccines, and an rVSV-Trivalent (mixed rVSV-Wuhan, -Beta and -Delta) vaccine elicited potent nAbs against live SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan (USAWA1), Beta (B.1.351), Delta (B.1.617.2) and Omicron (B.1.1.529) viruses. Heterologous boosting of rVSV-Wuhan with rVSV-Delta induced strong nAb responses against Delta and Omicron viruses, with the rVSV-Trivalent vaccine consistently inducing effective nAbs against all the SARS-CoV-2 variants tested. All rVSV-msp-S-Gtc vaccines also elicited an immunodominant Spike-specific CD8+ T cell response. Conclusion(s): rVSV vaccines targeting SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern can be considered as an effective booster vaccine in the global fight against COVID-19.
RESUMEN
Objectives: The West of Scotland (WoS) region of the Scottish deanery has 96 doctors training in obstetrics and gynaecology. A postgraduate teaching programme supports these clinicians. In 2020 the teaching programme was reinvented due to the new RCOG curriculum and the COVID-19 pandemic. Our aim was to create a programme that was safe, accessible, flexible, high quality and relevant to trainees' needs. Design: We created an innovative programme of virtual content delivered over Microsoft Teams on a monthly basis. The sessions were available for all trainees to attend, with new sessions including CTG teaching and journal club. The content was mapped to the 2019 RCOG curriculum;with learning objectives for the Capabilities in Practice. Each session was recorded and available retrospectively with “flexible study leave” which can be used to view these in working hours. We surveyed trainees to assess the teaching programme. Method: An anonymised survey was created to evaluate the teaching programme from January to June 2021;addressing the parameters of accessibility, flexibility and relevance. The link was emailed to WoS trainees. The data was collected through Microsoft forms and analysed using Microsoft software. Results: There were 41 responses from 96 trainees across with representation from all levels and hospitals. 98% of respondents found the virtual programme more accessible than the previous face-to- face teaching. 52% had accessed content retrospectively with 21% using flexible study leave. 100% of respondents found the teaching relevant or very relevant to their learning needs. 81% of respondents wished that the future programmes would comprise a combination of online and face-to- face teaching. Suggestions for future improvements were collated from white box questions. Conclusion: These results show that the innovative virtual teaching programme achieved the aims of accessibility, flexibility and relevance to trainee needs. However, the response rate was 43%. It is possible that those who did not respond may continue to have difficulty with accessibility and flexibility. The majority of trainees would like a future of hybrid teaching to allow the increased accessibility and flexibility of virtual sessions but without losing the networking and social aspect of in person learning. Overall, the survey results suggest that the teaching programme has been adapted appropriately and admirably navigated a challenging period for postgraduate education. While the future remains uncertain, Microsoft Teams software and the ingenuity of our education team has ensured we will continue to deliver high quality teaching to meet the needs of our trainees.