Ex Indonesian Minister of Health Terawan Agus Putranto with the US Aivita Biomedical Corporation, Diponegoro University, and Kariadi Hospital Semarang, initiated the manufacture of the Nusantara Covid-19 vaccine. As reported by Kompas TV, Tuesday (16/2/2021), Terawan explained that the Nusantara vaccine uses blood serum from each individual. This Nusantara vaccine a dendritic cell-based personal vaccine.
This article has been published on Kompas.com with the title “The Terawan Archipelago Vaccine Based on Dendritic Cells, What is the Difference with other vaccines?
What are dendritic cells?
Answering these questions, Kompas.com contacted Indonesian molecular biologist, Ahmad Utomo. PlistEdit Pro Crack
Before explaining the matter vaccines based on dendritic cells, Ahmad explained in advance the basic terminology of vaccines. When a person is injected with a vaccine, there is an antigen in the vaccine. The antigen is part of a virus or virus that is attenuated and can trigger the growth of antibodies in the person being injected. enters the skin tissue, later he will meet with dendritic cells,” said Ahmad, Wednesday (17/2/2021).
Dendritic cells are immune cells that function as teachers.
“(dendritic cells) are the teachers, cells that will produce antibodies. , “he said.
In the human body, there are two kinds of cells, the B cells and T cells in charge of producing the antibody are cell B.
“When there is a lot of a The antigen that enters the body through the vaccine is then absorbed by the dendritic cells, then the dendritic cells will expose their body parts to the pieces of the antigen. The point is to teach B cells (producing antibodies),” he explained.
Later, B cells will need time to respond to make antibodies that match the antigen. “Usually about two weeks. After that, antibodies that are specific to the antigen will appear,” said Ahmad.
So if you look at the conventional vaccine approach – including the Sinovac, Pfizer, AstraZeneca vaccines, and so on, it relies on dendritic cells that are already in the human body. So, why vaccines? Nusantara is said to be very specific in using dendritic cells?
The difference between dendritic cell vaccines and others
Unlike conventional vaccines, the Nusantara vaccine initiated by Terawan is made by removing dendritic cells from the body, then reinserting them. vaccinated. After the blood was drawn, the volunteers were allowed to go home so that the experts could grow dendritic cells in the laboratory.
In the blood, there are various kinds of cells, from red blood cells, white blood cells, including dendritic precursor cells. “(dendritic precursor cells) have not become dendritic cells, but still (in the form of) precursor cells,” explained Ahmad If taken from volunteers or people who will be vaccinated, the expert will then grow specific dendritic precursor cells. “So red blood cells are separated, white blood cells are also removed. They (experts) are only trying to grow dendritic precursor cells,” he explained. These dendritic precursor cells were grown in laboratory dishes.
The precursor cells will be given special compounds to grow into dendritic cells. “During the incubation period, it takes time, about 2-3 days. At that time, antigens are also given (to dendritic cells). So the antigen is not injected into people, but is given directly to dendritic cells (in the laboratory),” said Ahmad.
After the dendritic cells mature and have been exposed to the antigen, they are injected back into the same volunteers. Blood is taken from volunteer A, the dendritic cells will be returned to A, not C or D. Complicated method and the price is a question. In connection with this dendritic cell-based Nusantara vaccine, Ahmad said this method was very complicated. Ahmad said the dendritic cell approach was actually used for cancer immunotherapy.
“In the past, there was a company that tried to capitalize on this, it failed to go bankrupt because it was very expensive. The cost was up to (Rp) 1 billion, if I’m not mistaken, for one patient,” said Ahmad.
This method is very expensive because the cultural process is not easy and complicated. Starting from taking blood, separating cells, growing dendritic cells in the laboratory, increasing the number, to injecting again into individuals. After that, the expert must wait and see if the antibodies appear. In the process, it takes repeated checks to ensure whether the process is correct. After that, the expert must wait and see if the antibodies appear.
“After dendritic cells are trained in the laboratory, when they are inserted into the body they should be able to teach B cells to form antibodies,” explained Ahmad.
However, as previously reported by Kompas.com, the Nusantara Vaccine is set at Rp. 140,000. “This is very interesting. When scientists find out about this price, they can only say WOW. Because it’s amazing, unless there is a subsidy,” he said.
