Viral Immunity & Science of Covid-19 Vaccines

Rensel: 10/8

From your reading, what is “movement 1”?

A) The adaptive immune response

B) Vaccination

C) The innate immune response

D) The cellular immune response

A vaccine is meant to mimic which exposure to a pathogen?

A) The first

B) The second

From your reading, what’s the most effective type of vaccine?

A) Whole virus/bacterium

B) Parts that trigger immune system

C) Just the genetic material

D) It depends

Which subunit of the SARS-CoV-2 virus would be the best candidate for a subunit vaccine?

A) The envelope proteins

B) The nucleocapsid proteins (N)

C) The spike proteins (S)

In making a safe and effective SARS-CoV2 mRNA vaccine, which portion(s) of the viral genome would you want to include? Explain your answer.

A) The code for the RdRp (RNA-dependent RNA polymerase)

B) The code for the spike protein

C) The entire SARS-CoV2 genome

The immune system, according to our reading, is most like:

A) An army defending a castle

B) An orchestra playing a symphony

C) Firefighters putting out a fire

D) Actors putting on a play

The production of antibodies by B cells, key to the immune system, is one example of activity in the:

A) Innate immune systems

B) Adaptive immune systems

C) Central dogma

D) Central nervous system

Which of the following is NOT a reason COVID-19 vaccines were available quickly, according to your reading?

A) Because there was massive federal investment in vaccine development

B) Because the new vaccines were made using a genetic technique that speeds up the development process

C) Because there was lots of background research available on similar coronaviruses, like the original SARS virus

D) Because the vaccine development pipeline was already optimized to go from start to finish in a few months, as evidenced by prior vaccine rollouts

Novavax is an example of a current COVID-19 vaccine that was composed of pieces of a spike protein. What kind of vaccine is this?

A) Subunit vaccine

B) Live attenuated (weakened) vaccine

C) Genetic vaccine

D) Whole microbe vaccine

When a virus enters the body, adaptive immunity is initiated by:

A) Viral RNA

B) Phagocytosis

C) Viral proteins (ex: spike protein on SARS-COV2 virus)

D) Increasing IgG and IgM concentrations in the body

A virus enters the body, and B-cells are stimulated and produce antibodies, what part of the immune response is this:

A) Humoral immunity

B) Cell-mediated immunity

C) Innate immunity

D) Adaptive Immunity

E) A & D

F) B & D

UCLA researchers are in the pre-approval phase of development of a vaccine for a particularly aggressive strain of the new senioritis virus. For convenience, they choose to recruit student volunteers from an upper division LS class, later expanding testing to the entire Life Sciences department, and then the entire campus. What are researchers trying to gather data on?

A) Vaccine efficacy

B) Vaccine effectiveness

C) Vaccine safety

D) A & C

E) All of the above

Describe at least three differences between the innate and adaptive immune responses. 

Current Covid-19 vaccines available in the US include Novovax (a subunit vaccine) and SpikeVax (an mRNA/genetic vaccine). How are subunit and genetic vaccines different from one another? Similar? Next, describe why each of these vaccines aims to stimulate our immune systems via exposure to the spike protein?

What is vaccine efficacy? What does it mean if a vaccine has an efficacy of 80%? How is efficacy different from effectiveness?