Cassandra Berry

Vaccine hesitancy is still a significant barrier to achieving widespread immunity in many communities. In this paper, we evaluated a serious game fo-cusing on vaccination against COVID-19. This study investigates the potential of virtual reality (VR) as an innovative educational tool to address this issue. Focusing on the serious game " Spike Force " , which simulates the mechanisms of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, this research evaluates the game's effectiveness in enhancing participants' understanding, altering attitudes, and influencing behaviours related to vaccination. Participants engaged with " Spike Force, " and their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours were assessed through pre-and post-gameplay questionnaires. The findings show that immersive VR experiences can significantly improve vaccine literacy, increase confidence in vaccine-related discussions, and promote positive behavioural changes toward vaccination. These results suggest that VR could play an effective advocacy role for public health education, particularly in combating vaccine hesitancy.

Vaccine hesitancy and uptake have been important issues in controlling the current COVID-19 pandemic in many regions around the globe, but the increase in vaccination rates has been slow or even halted in some countries. Therefore, people who have hesitated in getting the vaccine need to be addressed. One driver influencing vaccination uptake is closing the knowledge gap among the public by equipping them with a deeper understanding of how a vaccine works inside our cells to activate the immune system and develop immunity. Viral immunology is highly conceptual and requires an appreciation of molecular biology in the cell. To give individuals an intuitive awareness of the operation of a mRNA-type virus vaccine for COVID-19, we designed and developed a Virtual Reality (VR) based serious game called ‘Cell Traveler’. Through this innovative VR serious game, the player can control and interact with a sequence of critical real-life events inside a cell triggered by the injected mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. In this paper, we describe the prototype of the ‘Cell Traveler’. We utilize the concepts of serious game to create an experience to encourage students and the public to develop deeper mRNA vaccine knowledge through a memorable and fun experience.

Type I IFN subtypes have been shown to exhibit differential efficacies in the immune response to virus infections. Recent efforts in vaccine developments have focused on new strategies to improve immunity, including the interaction of dendritic cells (DC) with IFNs. In this study, we assess the immunomodulating capacity of a panel of mouse IFN proteins to enhance DC activation and immune stimulating potential, providing a link between innate and adaptive immunity. Individual or combinatorial murine IFN-alpha and -beta subtypes were used to stimulate BALB/c bone marrow-derived DC (BMDC), which were then analysed for activation marker expression, antigen uptake and processing, and antigen-specific CD4_ T cell stimulatory capacity. Murine IFN-alpha 1, -4, -6 and beta subtypes displayed differential efficacies in BMDC activation, antigen processing and presentation to naïve antigen-specific CD4_ T cells. IFN-beta was the most efficient stimulator of BMDC activation and antigen processing of all the subtypes tested, followed by IFN-alpha 4. Additionally, IFN-alpha 4/beta was found to be superior to all other IFNs in enhancing antigen processing. However, IFN treatment appeared to inhibit DC-mediated CD4_ T cell activation in an ovalbumin model system. Differences in mRNA expression profiles of TLR-3, -4, -9, OAS1, PKR and RIG-I after BMDC stimulation with IFN subtypes were noted. These data confirm the adjuvant potential of select IFN subtypes in DC-mediated immunity and propose their application for vaccine development.