Traditional Vaccines

In order to understand just how exciting mRNA vaccines are, it’s essential to first understand how traditional vaccines work.

With traditional vaccines, a weakened virus or piece of the virus’s protein coat is injected into the body. Your immune system then recognizes the foreign protein and produces antibodies, which are specialized proteins that protect the body against infection. The problem with traditional vaccines though, is that they take a lot of time to create.

Around 30 years ago, scientists started looking into ways to simplify the vaccine-making process and the theory for mRNA vaccines was born.

What Are mRNA Vaccines?

RNA is a form of genetic material, and mRNA is a type of RNA needed for protein production. Essentially, mRNA uses the information in genes as a blueprint for creating proteins.

When people hear that mRNA creates proteins, they often wonder if mRNA vaccines alter their DNA. The fact is that, once a cell finishes making proteins, it breaks down the mRNA. This means that it never enters the nucleus and does not alter your DNA.

mRNA vaccines introduce a piece of mRNA corresponding to a viral protein, typically a small piece of a protein that is found on the virus’s outer membrane. Your cells are then able to produce this protein using the mRNA blueprint.

Creating mRNA Vaccines

The first part of mRNA vaccines, making the mRNA, was a relatively straightforward process to figure out.

However, the second part, injecting the mRNA into the cells of the body, has taken 30 years to figure out. This is because scientists had to figure out a way to protect the mRNA from chemicals in our body that would normally destroy it. Then, they had to figure out a way to modify the mRNA so that you did not experience an insufficient or overshooting immune system reaction with its injection. They also had to figure out how to bring the cells of the immune system to take in the mRNA as it passed them in the blood.

Currently, the only approved mRNA vaccines are those for SARS-CoV-2. However, researchers are studying alternative uses and applications for mRNA vaccines, for example for other infectious agents, such as the Zika virus, Ebola, and Influenza, or as a treatment for cancer.

The Advantage of Time

Previously, no new vaccine had ever been developed in less than four years. However, for the COVID-19 vaccine, the UK and US were able to confirm an mRNA vaccine for it that was effective and safely tolerated just 11 months after the discovery of the virus.

This type of turnaround for vaccines had previously been unheard of but opens a very exciting door for quickly getting a handle on newly emerging viral infections.

Of course, this quick turnaround also caused some concern regarding the safety of the vaccine. However, we have to remember that, creating these mRNA vaccines has been a 30-year project. These vaccines were not just “jumbled together in haste” and have gone through all the necessary testing every other vaccine previously has had to as well. The only difference is that they only took weeks to manufacture, meaning they were able to begin testing faster.

mRNA Vaccines: The Future of Medicine

mRNA vaccines took a long time to become a reality. However, with the quick turnaround in their production for viral agents, and their potential application to other fields, it’s clear that mRNA vaccines have secured their spot in the future of medicine.

References

1. Jain S, Venkataraman A, Wechsler ME, Peppas NA. Messenger RNA-based vaccines: Past, present, and future directions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2021 Oct 9;179:114000. doi: 10.1016/j.addr.2021.114000. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34637846; PMCID: PMC8502079.
2. Verbeke R, Lentacker I, De Smedt SC, Dewitte H. The dawn of mRNA vaccines: The COVID-19 case. J Control Release. 2021 May 10;333:511-520. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2021.03.043. Epub 2021 Mar 30. PMID: 33798667; PMCID: PMC8008785.
3. The tangled history of mRNA vaccines. (2021). Retrieved 8 August 2022, from https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02483-w