CCMB develops Indian mRNA vaccine platform
- May 14, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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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.