Live unattenuated vaccines for controlling viral diseases, including COVID-19

Abstract

Live unattenuated vaccines (LUVs) have been neglected for decades, due to widespread prejudice against their safety, even though they have successfully controlled yellow fever and adenovirus infection in humans as well as rinderpest and infectious bursal disease in animals. This review elucidated that LUVs could be highly safe with selective use of neutralizing antivirus antibodies, natural antiglycan antibodies, nonantibody antivirals, and ectopic inoculation. Also, LUVs could be of high efficacy, high development speed, and high production efficiency, with the development of humanized monoclonal antibodies and other modern technologies. They could circumvent antibody-dependent enhancement and maternal-derived antibody interference. With these important advantages, LUVs could be more powerful than other vaccines for controlling some viral diseases, and they warrant urgent investigation with animal experiments and clinical trials for defeating the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.