mThe Codes of Life, for Life:
mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines at the Forefront of Healthcare
Everyone who got through the horror that was the Year 2020 knows that an end to the COVID-19 pandemic was everyone’s hope for a “year-end plot twist.” Cures, better treatment measures, even traditional forms of medication — anything, really, that seemed worthy of trying — passed as either miraculous treatments or magical modes of prevention that everyone was willing to adopt because of the desperate need to go back to what was deemed as normal. What they probably didn’t know, however, was that on top of the national lockdown efforts and global measures for the containment of the virus, scientists and researchers of every company and laboratory worked around the clock to synthesize the most effective ‘end-all, be-all’ to the deadly virus and all its other possible variants: the COVID-19 vaccine.
For patients who’ve regularly seen the tip of the syringe during booster visits, it’s motivation enough that vaccines are the best manifestation of the saying “Prevention is better than cure” to endure those three to five seconds of pain during a shot. Formally introduced in the clinical world mid-20th century, vaccines are substances meant to reduce one’s risk of acquiring a particular disease by stimulating one’s immune system to produce antibodies as a mode of defense against the disease without actually causing any illness. Usually, a vaccine’s active ingredient is a weakened or inactivated form of the pathogen or antigen, which elicits a specific immune response for the body to fight if ever it encounters the illness.
However, the COVID-19 vaccines first developed and authorized for use in the United States are not made up of the same components as today’s conventional vaccines. Instead of antigens or weakened pathogens, the active ingredient of this new generation of vaccines is mRNA or messenger ribonucleic acid (RNA). Putting complex molecular biology terms aside, mRNA is a single-stranded DNA molecule that acts as the carrier of the information necessary for creating a specific kind of protein — precisely why it’s called the “messenger.” In your body, mRNA is an essential part of the central dogma, which is basically what keeps one alive. On the other hand, the mRNA in these new vaccines plays a more induced role when it is introduced into the body. Essentially, because the protein that is coded by the mRNA code is new, it’s seen as a foreign substance, so the immune system automatically does what it can to guard the entire body against it by producing molecular weapons called antibodies or immunoglobulins that render it neutralized and defenseless.
As complex as the process may sound, it only takes a few hours to days to actually see for yourself that it’s working. Here’s a much closer look at what happens from start to finish:
First, the mRNA vaccine is given in the upper arm where the muscle cells receive the instructions from the mRNA first. As soon as the mRNA enters the cells, it undergoes a process called “translation,” where the code gets processed to make copies of the COVID-19 antigen, which is, in this case, a spike protein. Once the mRNA instructions are broken down, the spike protein is displayed on the cell surface. This allows the immune system to immediately recognize it as an invader, thus inciting an immune response initiated by the production of COVID-19 antibodies. How one’s body reacts to this vaccine-caused immune response is similar to how it would react if it was actually affected by the COVID-19 virus. More often than not, you might experience the well-known symptoms of the virus such as a mild fever, headache, chills, and body malaise a day or two after the jab, but take note — you do NOT have COVID. An immune response that you can physically feel is something that happens after you get any type of vaccine, not just mRNA ones, as they’re a sign that the vaccine is successfully doing its job of preparing your body for the worst.
By the time the immune response is finished and the symptoms are gone, you would have already had the weapons to fight off the deadly virus, which is kind of like owing your body a favor that may last a lifetime. Like all other vaccines, you might need to get boosters to strengthen its efficacy from time to time, but the assurance that you will never get to experience the serious consequences of contracting a fatal illness such as COVID is definitely guaranteed. Since the mRNA sequences are synthesized chemically rather than biologically, these vaccines are easier, safer to produce, and less risky than conventional vaccines [which are grown in large amounts within mammalian cells, such as chicken eggs that often risk allergen exposure].
In spite of introducing spliced genetic information during immunization, it cannot affect or alter one’s actual DNA. The mRNA as the code of life here is only used temporarily in the process of synthesizing the spike protein, which only takes place in the cytoplasm. The DNA itself is located within the nucleus, which the mRNA never penetrates, thus, there is a very low possibility of the mRNA integrating into the host cell’s DNA. Once the protein is made, the mRNA strands are also degraded by the cell using enzymes, so they never stay inside your cells for good.
As of now, Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines are at the top of the list of vaccines with the highest efficacy rates, with both of them being given emergency use authorizations by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for distribution in the United States. Although these vaccines do require they be kept at an ultrafrosty -70 degrees Celsius during storage to keep the mRNA strands stable and effective, they do their job. There’s a significant percentage reduction in risk of disease among vaccinated persons relative to those who are unvaccinated, and this is definitely the step humanity as a whole needs to take to get back on track.
Given the impact it has had on managing the COVID-19 pandemic, the new approach of mRNA vaccine technology will definitely continue to prosper with growing interests in using one vaccine to provide protection for multiple diseases. With a much faster and more standardized development process, its possibilities in the fields of molecular biology and healthcare are endless, and quite possibly life-changing. All in all, mRNA vaccines are proof of the immense power that the tiny molecular components of our entire being possess, and more importantly, our capacity to use them for the greater good and for life, which is what honestly makes this molecular power a thousand times greater.
