The Impact of mRNA Technology and Future Prospects

5 months ago

We cannot lie that vaccines have improved over the years. Gone are the days when we would scrape pus from cows to give to humans to help prevent smallpox. Although, it was worth it at the time and helped a lot, it still had its shortcomings.

In recent years, we have been progressive in the development of vaccines and we can thank Covid-19 for it. Never before have we experienced such speed with vaccine but then it also shaped the scientific world completely. We can with no doubt that in the last few years, the field of Vaccinology has improved drastically. Vaccines have been making strides with different things including mRNA vaccines, epigenetics, universal vaccines, and the delivery system.

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We cannot deny that mRNA vaccine is the new kid on the block and it was efficacious in the protection against the Covid-19 virus. Scientist knew about mRNA vaccines prior to Covid-19 but the virus brought about the speed with which the vaccine technology was used, and we remember that it took less than 12 months to create the Covid-19 vaccine.

With the traditional viral vaccine, a small part, or an inactive virus, or weakened virus would be introduced into body so as to stimulate an immune response but with mRNA vaccine, the genetic instructions of the virus is introduced into the cell, thereby causing the cell to produce the specific protein to generate the immune response just similar to how mRNA uses protein to repair, build and maintain cell structures in the body.

With mRNA vaccines, the body is being taught how to produce the protein instead of the traditional type of vaccine where the protein needs to be made in the factory which was why it would take a long time before vaccines got approval. So unlike traditional vaccines where the protein itself is introduced into the body, with mRNA vaccine, the ribosome is thought how to produce the protein.

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While this improvement is no doubt impressive, mRNA vaccines are still limited as they teach the immune cells ribosome to produce specific proteins to specific types of virus. Scientists are starting to look at solving this problem were a vaccine will not be specific to one type of virus, or in the case of influenza, one variant of virus.

If we could bring together the knowledge we know about influenza virus, or the corona virus with the mRNA vaccine knowledge, then it will easier for the immune cells to be taught to fight a specific protein common to all variant of that virus or in this case, all types of flu. With the covid-19 vaccine, instead of waiting for the adaptive immune system (T and B cells) to learn how to fight the virus, epigenetic changes is triggered in the cells of the innate response causing the cells to start killing the virus immediately.

The landscape of vaccine development has undergone a significant transformation, driven by both technological advances and urgent global health needs. The rapid development and deployment of mRNA vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic highlight the potential for future vaccines to be more efficient and broadly protective. Continued research and innovation in this field hold the promise of more effective responses to existing and emerging infectious diseases, ultimately enhancing global health security.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7174260/
https://clinicalepigeneticsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13148-019-0654-9
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9627935/
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2023/03/vaccine-covid-infection.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9871947/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9917162/
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/clinical-trial-mrna-universal-influenza-vaccine-candidate-begins
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10222975/