mRNA Vaccines

mRNA Vaccines

Subject: Science and Technology

Context: Companies like Moderna and Pfizer are working on mRNA vaccines that allow people to build immunity to viruses like SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. These vaccines contain specifically designed mRNA that instructs cells how to make viral proteins.

• Hungarian-born scientist Katalin Karikó attempted to harness the power of mRNA to fight disease in 1990’s.

About mRNA:

• Messenger RNA (mRNA) is a single-stranded RNA molecule that is complementary to one of the DNA strands of a gene.
• mRNA, like most RNAs, are made in the nucleus and then exported to the cytoplasm where the translation machinery, the machinery that actually makes proteins, binds to these mRNA molecules and reads the code on the mRNA to make a specific protein. 
• So in general, one gene, the DNA for one gene, can be transcribed into an mRNA molecule that will end up making one specific protein.

mRNA Vaccine/ Synthetic mRNA:

• In the natural world, the body relies on millions of tiny proteins to keep itself alive and healthy, and it uses mRNA to tell cells which proteins to make. If you could design your own mRNA, you could, in theory, hijack that process and create any protein you might desire — antibodies to vaccinate against infection, enzymes to reverse a rare disease, or growth agents to mend damaged heart tissue.
• Every strand of mRNA is made up of four molecular building blocks called nucleosides. But in its altered, synthetic form, one of those building blocks  simply subbed it out for a slightly tweaked version, creating a hybrid mRNA that could sneak its way into cells without alerting the body’s defenses.
• To produce a mRNA vaccine, scientists produce a synthetic version of the mRNA that a virus uses to build its infectious proteins.
• This mRNA is delivered into the human body, whose cells read it as instructions to build that viral protein, and therefore create some of the virus’s molecules themselves.

mRNA Vaccine vs Traditional Vaccines: