New mRNA Vaccine, a New Era in Vaccinology

Vaccination is a process to protect our body from harmful diseases even before we are exposed to such diseases. This is the way of building our body’s natural immunity system by getting injected with dead or weakened forms of bacteria or viruses. After getting injected with the viruses our body detects the antigens and creates antibodies to fight those invading germs which leads to building our immune system against that particular disease. The new mRNA vaccine could promise a revolutionary transformation across the medical fraternity. And this article plans to explore the mRNA history, benefits, and possible outcomes.

Types of Vaccines Available

With the world still recovering from the Covid aftermath, most individuals and organizations are proactively getting vaccinated through numerous drives and campaigns. And it is therefore important to understand the Vaccine classifications and usage.

• Whole Virus- This one uses whole viruses to create an immune system of both live and inactive viruses. It isn’t an ideal combination for people with weak immunity.
• Protein Subunit– It uses fragments(protein)of the virus. This vaccine also uses the adjuvant, immune system to work better in the future. But this variant isn’t suitable for weak resilient people. One example of this vaccine is Novavax.
• Viral Vector– These vaccines work by delivering genetic instructions to the cells to produce antigens. These use adenovirus as a vector, not a virus similar to the disease, and prepare the body for immunity. For example influenza virus. But this vaccine sometimes proved ineffective in cases where the recipient is already self-resistant.
• Nucleic Acid– This type of vaccine uses DNA or RNA to instruct the cells to create antigens. Both DNA and RNA-based vaccines instruct the body cells to produce a specific protein from the pathogen, which will be recognized as an antigen by the immune system.

About mRNA Vaccine

As the name suggests this vaccine contains messenger RNA (mRNA) which is a single-stranded RNA molecule used to complement DNA. RNA polymerase reproduces DNA to create pre-mRNA to make this vaccine in the nucleus. After which Pre-mRNA and mRNA get intertwined. When. Pre-mRNa gets transported from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, and ribosomes read it. Ribosomes develop a protein antigen that triggers an immune response against the virus. The mRNA cannot be merged with the genome as it does not enter the nucleus. It gets eliminated via cellular mechanism because of its fugitive presence in the cell and also it is absorbed quickly by the same.

In the history of vaccine development, this one has been developed at an unparalleled speed. The FDA approved the mRNA vaccine under an Emergency Use Authorization less than 1 year after identifying the sequences of the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. According to mRNA history the development of mRNA vaccine started in the second half of the 20th century. In 2020, mRNA vaccines for Covid-19 treatment were approved for the first time by the FDA. There are 7 types of mRNA vaccines being clinically tested among which only the Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine or BNT162b2 and Moderna Vaccine or mRNA-1273 have been approved. The mRNA-1273(94.1%), and BNT162b2(94%) vaccines showed effectiveness against COVID-19 infection.

New mRNA Vaccine Gets the Limelight

The advantages of the traditional vaccines

Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are the globally accepted and most important mRNA vaccines for Covid-19. Because these vaccines generate a stronger immune system which is very effective against pathogens in comparison to the immune system created by traditional vaccines.

The efficacy

Both Pfizer and Moderna Vaccines have been proven effective for all age groups and also against all the recent variants of Covid-19(Delta and Omicron). In a head-to-head comparison between these two mRNA Covid vaccines, the effectiveness of the Moderna booster seemed higher.

Longtime Immunity

Some researchers have shown that these vaccines don’t build any unnecessary immune system, but rather help immune cells remember the type of infection for a long time which leads to a chance for a lifetime of immunity for the vaccinated persons.

Vaccination on a larger scale

As the manufacturing process of mRNA vaccines is quicker as well as easier than the other vaccines it has proved helpful in the context of Covid-19.

Safety

Though both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines have the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis for the 18-39 age groups. But after the post-authorization observational studies, both the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines are completely safe.

Conclusion

According to a number of experts, the usage of mRNA technology can help developers efficiently create an effective vaccine against different variants and diseases. Scientists believe that a single vaccine can be produced by encoding multiple mRNAs which would be very effective against a number of antigens.