Current global vaccine and drug efforts against COVID 19: Pros and cons of bypassing animal trials
COVID 19 has become one of the biggest health concern, along with huge economic burden. With no clear remedies to treat the disease, doctors are repurposing drugs like chloroquine and remdesivir to treat COVID 19 patients. In parallel, research institutes in collaboration with biotech companies have identified strategies to use viral proteins as vaccine candidates for COVID 19. Although this looks promising, they still need to pass the test of challenge studies in animal models. As various models for SARS CoV 2 are under testing phase, biotech companies have bypassed animal studies and moved to Phase I clinical trials. In view of the present outbreak, this looks a justified approach, but the problem is that in the absence of animal studies, we can never predict the outcomes in humans. Since animal models are critical for vaccine development and SARS CoV 2 has different transmission dynamics, in this review we compare different animal models of SARS CoV 2 with humans for their pathogenic, immune response and transmission dynamics that make them ideal models for vaccine testing for COVID 19. Another issue of using animal model is the ethics of using animals for research; thus, we also discuss the pros and cons of using animals for vaccine development studies.
Journal of Biosciences