mRNA & mRNA vaccine

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Beyond potentially ending the pandemic, the vaccine breakthrough is showing how messenger RNA may offer a new approach to building drugs.  In the near future, researchers believe, shots that deliver temporary instructions into cells could lead to vaccines against herpes and malaria and better flu vaccines and if the covid-19 germ keeps mutating, updated coronavirus vaccinations can too. But researchers also see a future well beyond vaccines. They think this new technology will permit cheap gene fixes for cancer, sickle-cell disease and maybe even HIV.

Biologically, messenger RNA is transcribed from DNA and travels into a cell's cytoplasm where it's translated by ribosomes into proteins.

For the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the synthesized mRNA is cloaked in a lipid nanoparticle in order to evade the immune system when it's injected.

Once it's inside a cell, the ribosomes will get to work pumping out the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2.
The immune system then mounts a response to that protein, conferring immunity to the virus without ever having been infected by it.

Essentially, instead of pharma producing the proteins via an expensive and difficult process, mRNA enlists the body to do the work. The capability to produce mRNA so rapidly is one reason these vaccines are out front in the global race for a COVID-19 vaccine.












The biotech industry has made wonders for patients in the last 30 years making recombinant proteins, like EPO (Erythropoietin is a glycoprotein hormone best known for its role in stimulating bone marrow to produce red blood cells. Consequently, recombinant human EPO is an important biopharmaceutical drug for treatment of anemia) and insulin. What if mRNA could be a drug and the body could make its own missing proteins on demand?

                        1 of 5 :: what is mrna?

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                       2 of 5 :: how mrna vaccines work?

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 3 of 5 :: the founding CEO of moderna:  "can body make its own missing proteins?"

Our cells are packed with sensing molecules that distinguish our RNA from that of a virus.

If these molecules see viral genes, they launch a storm of immune molecules called cytokines that hold the virus at bay while your body learns to cope with it. “It takes a week to make an antibody response; what keeps you alive for those seven days is these sensors,” Weissman says. But too strong a flood of cytokines can kill us.

The real eureka moment was when scientists determined they could avoid the immune reaction by using chemically modified building blocks to make the RNA.

Bill Whitaker reports on the scientists and advances in biotechnology behind a COVID-19 vaccine that could help end the pandemic. CBS News

        4 of 5 :: Inside the Lab That Invented the COVID-19 Vaccine

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        5 of 5 :: scientists & biotech behind the pfizer & Biontech vaccine