CCMB develops Indian mRNA vaccine platform

CCMB develops Indian mRNA vaccine platform

Subject: Science and Technology

Section: Health

Context: mRNA vaccine and robust immune response

Concept: A vaccine’s goal is to train the body’s immune system to defend against disease. Many vaccines use a weakened or dead version of the actual virus to stimulate an immune response. In contrast, mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccines use a genetic code to tell the body’s cells to produce proteins that the immune system recognizes as the virus.

• The part of the mRNA that encodes a protein, plugging in new code specific to the virus to protect against, and causes one’s body to produce proteins that match that virus’ proteins.
• The mRNA vaccine promises to deal with other infectious diseases such as TB, dengue, malaria, chikungunya, rare genetic diseases, and others.
• This technique ha as rapid turnaround time, which means vaccines can be developed for other diseases or a pan-COVID vaccine covering different variants
• Binding to the ACE2 receptor is a critical initial step for SARS-CoV to enter into target cells. Recent studies also highlighted the important role of ACE2 in mediating entry of SARS-CoV-2. HeLa cells expressing ACE2 are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection whereas those without ACE2 are not.
• The COVID-19 spike protein in mice upon administration of two doses of the mRNA vaccine. “The anti-spike antibodies generated were found to be more than 90% efficient in preventing the human ACE2 receptor binding to the coronavirus
• Measuring anti-spike protein antibodies in human plasma or serum is commonly used to determine prior exposure to SARS-CoV-2 infection and to assess the anti-viral protection capacity.
• The mRNA vaccine candidate is now undergoing preclinical hamster challenge studies to evaluate the efficacy to protect against live virus infection.