About Covishield Vaccine

Akanksha Joshi

Science Club RSML

9th January 2022

    Covovax is also known as covishield. It has been developed by AstraZeneca with Oxford university in the UK produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII).

    Vaccination is the process of acquiring immunity to fight against future infection. Vaccines have an agent  SARS-CoV-2 virus which is a virus of COVID-19. The vaccine contains its toxins or a surface protein of weakened or dead microorganisms. it contains the genetic material of that virus, which can then be read with the help of the body to formulate the immune system response.

Ingredients contained by covishield vaccine:

1. L-Histidine(L-enantiomer of the amino acid histidine) It is a proteinogenic amino acid, a histidine, and an L-alpha-amino acid. It is used as a micronutrient, an Escherichia coli metabolite, a human metabolite, an algal metabolite.
2. L-Histidine hydrochloride monohydrate: it is an efficacious source of the essential amino acid l-histidine for non-ruminant animal species used for allergic diseases, ulcers, etc…
3. Magnesium chloride hexahydrate: it is used to prevent and treat low amounts of magnesium in the blood.
4. Polysorbate 80: polysorbate 80 used a stabilizer that can be associated with allergic responses to vaccines is gelatin
5.  Ethanol: it is used as a solvent to help dissolve other ingredients in the vaccine.
6.  Sucrose: This ingredient helps the molecules maintain their shape during the work of the vaccine. 
7. Sodium chloride: It is used as preservatives or stabilizers that help the vaccine remains constant during that process and keep this in active form.
8. Disodium edetate dihydrate (EDTA): EDTA is used to lower blood levels of calcium when they have become dangerously high as well as neutralize corneal injuries due to calcium hydroxide. It is also known as lime burns.
9. Water for injection: this water is of extra high quality with the absence of significant contamination that is used to make the solution.
10. Covishield vaccine contains inactivated adenovirus with segments of coronavirus 

    If you get infected, Covishield Vaccine may help to reduce the severity of that infection. When the vaccine is injected into the human body, the agent goes into the cells of our tissues. There they capture the attention of certain 'dendritic' cells, which have a specific function to monitor intruders (unknown substances) that might have entered the body. The patrolling cells notice this unknown (never seen before in that body) agent and alarm the body against it.

    The dendritic cells do this by reading and genetic instructions about the virus injected into the body through the vaccine. Then there the information is replicated for the immune system to read it and react against it.