SARS-CoV-2 vaccines: evolution and escape

SARS-CoV-2 was declared a pandemic virus a year ago and has caused more than 140 million confirmed cases and 3 million deaths worldwide (1). In late 2020, vaccines based on the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein were the first to be approved in the health emergency. The spike protein interacts with the human ACE2 receptor at the beginning of the infection process, this basic knowledge gave rise to a vaccine whose target of action was the spike to trigger the action of neutralizing antibodies (2). Vaccines applied in the Western Hemisphere do not follow the traditional route of attenuated or inactive viruses; the new trend is messenger RNA methodologies, some are inserted into viral vectors that present the antigen to the cells of the immune system cells and induce humoral memory. However, vaccines based on recombinant peptides, attenuated and inactive viruses, have been successfully applied in Latin America and Asia, which overcome storage temperature and geopolitical aspects limitations.