A Brief Focus on SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Evolution and Vaccines

After the appearance of Severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the development of safe and effective vaccines was the most effective tool to tackle SARS-CoV2 infection and to prevent the development of severe illness. Among all the candidate vaccines, the mRNA technology, a novel lipid nanoparticle encapsulated mRNA encoding for the SARS-CoV2 spike protein, and the viral vector-based vaccines expressing the SARS-CoV2 spike protein, showed to be immunogenic and to induce strong humoral and cell-mediated immune responses. Still today, however, despite the success of controlling the pandemic thanks to vaccines, several questions remain regarding the acquired immunity after infection but also after vaccination, and their potential for genetic evolution. The history of animal CoVs has demonstrated that genetic changes can give rise to mutations and/or to recombination that could generate new viruses with modified virulence that are able to adapt to different hosts. The acquired experience in the patho-biology of animal CoVs, today more than ever, should be applied to enhance our knowledge of SARS-CoV2 and, above all, applied in the development of effective vaccines.