If Pfizer and Moderna vaccines successfully eradicate the COVID-19 epidemic, as they might think, we will give our exemption to the development of the mRNA vaccine – an unprecedented, latest vaccine technology that could change how vaccines are made. .
Indeed, there has never been a large-scale production and licensing of the mRNA vaccine to treat an infectious disease. The mRNA vaccine will be the first to treat the novel coronavirus.
Yet to understand the quantum leap that mRNA vaccines present, we need to understand where we are right now. Biotechnology giants Moderna and Pfizer / Bioentech announced last month that they have seen promising results as they approach the end of clinical trials for their vaccine candidates. Both vaccines are mass-produced and are likely to be distributed to the public.
Although particularly surprising is the fact that both mRNAs are vaccinated, the mRNAs are short because they are “synthetic messenger RNAs.” Understanding why this is a novel requires some background in the history of vaccination.
Vaccines before mRNA
RNA, a research assistant professor and messenger at the University of Pennsylvania. Therapist Dr. Norbert Pardi explained to Salon, there are three major types of vaccines. You may have heard of the first two, and you may have been injected with them at some point in your life, as are almost all Americans.
First, so-called conventional vaccines train the body to identify and cope with antigens, molecules, or molecular structures found on pathogenic organisms (or pathogens) that normally trigger an immune response in the body.
“When you use a conventional vaccine you deliver real protein antigens that will induce immune responses,” Pardi explained.
For example, a conventional vaccine platform is a lively balanced vaccine that uses a weaker form of the germ that caused the disease. Once in the body, the immune system learns to recognize the antigen and develop the immune system, but the patient does not get sick, because the form of the pathogen is weakened.
“The live-in vaccine is often very effective, but it sometimes causes adverse events,” Pardi explained.
Another related subtype of the conventional vaccine is called the protein subunit vaccine; This is considered very safe, Pardi said, because they introduce “inanimate, non-infectious material” that contains one or more antigens from a given pathogen. Once introduced into the body, the immune system learns how to identify future pathogens.
Viral vector-based vaccines, and genetic vaccines that use DNA and RNA are the second and third major vaccine techniques.
“When you use a viral-vector-based or genetic vaccine, you deliver a blueprint that will allow the host cells to produce protein antigens that will then induce an immune response,” Pardi said.
This is a little more practical than a standard conventional vaccine, in which you are giving the cells a blueprint instead of a part of the pathogen. In other words: conventional vaccines, which are either a weakened form of the pathogen or its genetic “fragments”, after seeing these similar versions, teach the immune system to identify the real pathogen. It’s like recognizing a particular brand of car after seeing an ad for it, or just seeing a partial picture of its hood. But a viral vector-based vaccine or genetic vaccine, Ford Focus would be more similar to recognizing that it just seems to have seen its blueprint.
The third and completely new technology, and the root of this story, is the mRNA vaccine. To this end, scientists have created a synthetic version of mRNA, the only deprived RNA molecule that appreciates one of the DNA strands in a gene. They then inject a bespoke version of mRNA into the body so that the cells can produce proteins similar to those found in a given virus and train the immune system to fight a specific disease before it enters your bloodstream. A few ideas like training a soldier to fight against actors playing the role of the enemy. So that they may be better prepared to fight the real enemy.
In the case of the SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine, this trains the body’s cells to identify the protein associated with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, known as the spike. Spikes are proteins that form tiny dots that stick around the sphere of a sea urchin like a virus. By helping the body’s cells to produce spikes, the vaccines in the process recognize the immune system and protect the human body from novel coronavirus infections.
The Holy Grail of Vaccine Technology?
Dr .. Katalin Karik, Hungarian biochemist who has RNA. Specializing in mediated mechanisms and serving as senior vice president of Bioentech RNA Pharmaceuticals, he explained to the salon why these new vaccines are so different.
“A vaccine containing a killed virus or a viral protein will only induce antibodies,” Karike said, referring to how conventional vaccines work. “Meanwhile, the mRNA vaccine, in addition to antibodies, also induces a cellular immune response,” he added, “because encoded viral proteins are synthesized within the vaccinated person’s cell.” This is an immunological double-blow: the injected mRNA literally synthesizes the same protein that the virus will synthesize in a person’s body, although it is a dress rehearsal for the actual infection.
Karik added that the cellular immune response is important because antibodies will remove and identify the virus in the blood, there are white blood cells from other cells called infected cells, and destroy it. In other words, antibodies patrol the bloodstream; T cells are looking for homes that have already been infiltrated. “The bionettech mRNA vaccine showed just that,” Currick said. “It induces coronavirus-specific antibodies and T cells.”
As developed by mRNA vaccines such as Moderna and Pfizer / Bioentech – technically known as the “nucleoside-modified mRNA vaccine”, Pardi explained that they have “two more serious advantages”: And ease of production. “He insisted that” once you get the coding sequence (s) of your antigen (s) you can quickly make these vaccines. ” He noted that Morderna developed the vaccine in just 42 days after discovering the genetic sequence of SARS-Cavi-2.
Pardi noted that even this mRNA vaccine is quick and easy to repair if needed. “You can use the same manufacturing process to create different mRNAs. This makes the product faster, easier and potentially cheaper.”
The long way to the mRNA vaccine
The mRNA vaccine is a very new technology, and it has a long way to go. Indeed, it has been thirty years since the proposal to use mRNA for vaccines came out when the first paper came out.
“There has been very slow progress in the development of mRNA-based therapeutic approaches because there were two major barriers that needed to be overcome,” Pardi told Salon. The first hurdle was the “instability of mRNA and the lack of safe and efficient carrier molecules that could protect mRNA from rapid degradation.” Because mRNA is fragile, you can simply dip it in water and not inject it; It needs to sit inside something.
The second problem was more macroscopic: inflammation. Or, as Pardi describes it: “Lack of methods to reduce inflammation induced by the administration of mRNA.”
Karike and a fellow from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005. The problem of inflammation was solved by Drew Weissman. They both deal with their confidence as they choose to embark on their play activities. “By replacing some of the building blocks of mRNA, they can almost eliminate inflammation,” he said.
Pardi said the key discovery allowed him to produce safe, therapeutic quality mRNA, the so-called nucleoside-modified mRNA.
As for the problem of carrier molecules, Pardi added that subsequent technological advances have helped develop delivery materials specifically for mRNAs, especially materials called lipid nanoparticles or LNPs. “Both the Moderna and Pfizer / Bioentech SARS-CoV-2 vaccines use the nucleoside-modified mRNA-LNP platform,” Pardi said. This method has been found to be safe and effective in both companies’ Phase III clinical trials.
Karike made significant sacrifices in his career in the name of developing mRNA vaccines. Her belief that they can work She was dropped from the University of Pennsylvania in 1995, according to STAT News, indicating that no money was coming in to sponsor her work on mRNA. Yet Karika has since been sufficiently authenticated; Papers written by him and Weissman in 2005 were noted by scientists who later helped find Pfizer’s future partners, Moderna and Bioentech.
ड er. Derrick Rossi, who helped find Moderna, voluntarily told STAT News that Karika and Weissman deserve the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. “If someone asks me who to vote for one day, I’ll put them in the front and center,” Rossi said. “That basic discovery will go into drugs that help the world.”
Indeed, one wonders how the world would have been different if Karika and Weissman had not succeeded in realizing their vision of mRNA technology regarding genes.
“It’s hard to say,” Pardi said. “One thing is for sure, we could not have developed a nucleoside-modified mRNA vaccine,” or the type of vaccine used by Pfizer / Bayonet Tech and Modern.
Other biotechnology has made great strides in the last ten years, including the ability to quickly sequence viral RNA, and this has helped speed up the vaccine, Karike himself told Salon. “Those who were vaccinating against this coronavirus this year relied on sequence data published by Chinese scientists in early January 2020,” he politely noted.
It also seems safe to assume that, if Carrick and Weissman had not been conquered by hard work and ingenuity, we would not have had the technology to develop the COVID-19 vaccine right now. Presumably, the vaccines would still have arrived, albeit later – and that’s all because they were ahead of the curve about the possibility of mRNA vaccines.
