Russia's COVID-19 Vaccine is Safe, Scientific Journal Reports

The world's most influential scientific journal The Lancet stated on Friday that the Russian COVID-19 vaccine generates antibodies and does not cause adverse incidents, according to preliminary results of clinical trials.

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The Sputnik-V vaccine, which is given to patients in two doses, was released to the public weeks ago without providing details on its clinical trials. The Lancet study, however, presented the first findings from two clinical trials in which 76 people took part.

The researchers found that the two formulations of the vaccine - one frozen and one lyophilized - are safe as the volunteers developed antibodies after 21 days and did not present adverse reactions in over 42 days.

The results of clinical trials also show that, after a period of 28 days, the vaccines produce a response from T cells, which are the human cells responsible for detecting and eliminating invading pathogens or infected cells.

The Lancet study explains that the Sputnik-V vaccine includes two adenovirus vectors weakened to express the "spike protein" SARS-CoV-2, which the new coronavirus uses to invade human cells.

These adenovirus vectors, which have already been safely used in many clinical trials, stimulate antibodies and responses in T-cells for the human immune system to attack both the virus and infected cells.

"When adenovirus vaccines enter human cells, they generate the genetic code for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that causes cells to produce this protein," the National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology main researcher Denis Logunov explained.

The trials were carried out in two Russian hospitals with adults aged between 18 and 60 years, who were isolated as soon as they registered to take part in clinical trials.

Scientist Alexander Gintsburg said that the third phase of the clinical trial of the Sputnik-V vaccine will include 40,000 volunteers of different age groups and with different levels of risk.