Apart from Covid-19, mRNA Technology Could Fight Other Challenging Diseases
The glory of science is that it’s constantly moving forward.
The first Covid-19 vaccines approved by western government agencies were based on what’s called messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology, a process never used before in licensed human vaccines. The vaccines’ rollout generated huge media coverage worldwide. That coverage, however, largely overshadowed the technology’s broader medical significance.
To appreciate that significance, it’s worth first looking at how the Covid-19 mRNA vaccines work. An enzyme called RNA polymerase reads the DNA base of the virus and transcribes it into mRNA. The vaccines made from this mRNA don’t contain any part of a virus, just a synthetic mRNA strand based on the part of the virus DNA responsible for what’s known as the spike protein.
When injected, the vaccine’s mRNA delivers its message to the person’s cell, prompting it to make the spike protein. The spike protein appears on the cell’s surface, and the immune system treats it like a real infection. It responds by generating targeted antibodies and T-cells to suppress it. Should the immune system encounter a real Covid-19 infection in the future, it’s primed and ready to neutralize it.
