Inactivated Virus Vaccine Is On the Cards

The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) is working on developing a vaccine to the COVID-19 disease using an inactivated virus.

Vaccination is the only possible solution to end the spread of the Coronavirus which is wreaking havoc in many nations.
Across the world, many organisations are working towards developing a vaccine to kill the virus.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has already listed 42 possible vaccine candidates that are being developed by various organisations.
In this endeavor, the CCMB is developing an inactivated virus vaccine.
Inactivated vaccines are considered safe and are easy to produce.
To produce an inactivated vaccine to COVID-19, the virus will be killed either by a chemical or heat.
But, the key components of the virus such as the receptor, with which the virus enters a human cell and the antigen of the virus, which the human immune system recognises, are kept intact.
When the inactivated virus is introduced into the body, the immune system is tricked to produce antibodies against the virus antigens until they last in the body.
Inactivated vaccines of polio and the rabies are made this way.
As the virus is inactivated, it cannot cause even a mild disease and is safe to be administered in people with low immunity such as the elderly and people with co-morbidity.
Currently, the CCMB is in the process of growing a large number of viruses in the lab and inactivate them.
As per CCMB, once the cell-culture-based production of the virus is in place, an industry partner will be roped in to produce the vaccine.

The main challenge in creating an inactivated virus is in the production of virus in large number outside the human body.
The novel coronavirus, which has evolved to live in a human cell, that too a cell with ACE2 receptors, identifying the right line of cells to culture the virus outside the human body is the key technological challenge for scientists.
For developing the vaccine, CCMB is using epithelial cell lines from African Green monkeys.
Scientists are growing the cells in a petri dish to artificially culture and grow the virus.
The culture will be successful if the cells die-off and release the cells.
The virus thus released will in collected, inactivated and will be developed into a vaccine.
The cell culture will also benefit the scientists to develop drugs for the coronavirus.
Once the cells are infected, a potential drug candidate can be tested.