Possibility of using the virus instead of the spike protein for covid-19 immunisation using MNA delivery

Question

I've read the article:

https://www.upmc.com/media/news/040220-falo-gambotto-sars-cov2-vaccine

regarding a prospective method of immunization against sars-cov-2 using the spike protein of the virus and micro-needle array delivery (MNA) and I've wondered if using the virus instead of the spike protein makes sense. What are the trade-offs? Is the risk of the virus spreading through the bloodstream in the body very high? Is culturing the virus or producing the spike protein more expensive? Can the sars-cov-2 virus be de-activated after being produced to make it safer?

Answer 1

Using weakened virus, or attenuated virus, is very old biotechnology to create vaccines. I doubt that there is any ethics committee that would sanction the use of live attenuated virus as a vaccine through whatever route as there is no data on safety via this route.

Also, you would want to be able inject enough virions to induce an immune response without killing the patient.

The latest technology is to use mRNA which would be used by the body to create the proteins seen on the virus, and the body would then create the antibodies against these proteins.

Moderna is studying its messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine in the US, and CanSino Biologics has begun a trial of its adenoviral vector vaccine in China.

https://cen.acs.org/pharmaceuticals/vaccines/coronavirus-help-mRNA-DNA-vaccines/98/i14