Most Covid-19 vaccines differ from any other vaccine that has come before.
The reason it comes down to one simple distinction is not to do with speed. It is rather to do with the technique on which the vaccines are based – namely to carve in the body’s own genetic blueprints.
Traditional vaccines use a virus, both alive and dead, depending on the sting, to teach our immune system to recognize the invader and destroy it next time. Most approved Covid-19 vaccines are mRNA vaccines, which are rather dependent on the genetic blueprints of our cells to produce proteins, and that our cells are pre-programmed to resist the newly-famous peak protein of the virus before our cells come in contact with a virus.
Even for people who strongly believe in science and vaccines, the speed with which scientists have created the mRNA vaccines – Pfizer and Moderna – has been incredible.
Think of the pre-pandemic: the government announces that it will push a lot of money into a whole new vaccine formulation developed for a newly discovered disease under the banner of a mission called “Operation Warp Speed”. And then the FDA quickly follows its use in people using emergency power. It seemed impossible – and then we did it and did it and did it again.
But for those following mRNA vaccinations, it was exciting. Covid-19 vaccines are the first mRNA vaccines approved for use, but scientists have been chasing these vaccines for more than 25 years for diseases such as cancer. Now that there are safe mRNA vaccines, the potential to use the technology to create other breakthrough treatments could change how we treat cancer, HIV, Parkinson’s disease and a number of other ailments by preventing them in the first place.
How are vaccines made?
Traditional vaccines are created in different, slightly different ways:
- Some use an attenuated version of the virus, such as the chickenpox vaccine
- Others use a dead version of the virus, such as a flu shot (this is also why we need to take the flu regularly to protect against flu in the long run).
- Others still use, like the hepatitis B vaccine, a part of the germ (like the protein for example)
All these types of vaccines work in the same way in the body. By introducing some version of a virus to the body in a controlled and safe way, it causes the body’s immune system to create the specific antibodies that confer immunity – lasting protection against which disease the pathogen causes.
If you consider these vaccines as the palm, wrist and fingers, then mRNA vaccines are the opposite thumbs up – a critical evolutionary next step. Like the other vaccines, it also causes your body to create the necessary antibodies to protect you from a pathogen. But it differs in one important way from the old vaccines: it contains no virus.
Instead, they teach your body how to make the necessary antibodies, which mainly train your immune system for any upcoming attack. The ‘m’ in mRNA vaccines stands for ‘messenger’, because that’s what it does: it gives the body’s cells a message to generate specific antibodies. Once it has done its messenger work, it disappears. It’s like the technician setting up an alarm system for your home. It places all the right sensors on the doors and windows and once finished, it relies on your alarm system – or in this case your antibodies – to keep you safe.
There are three important reasons why it is so exciting:
- mRNA vaccines can be made relatively quickly, which means we can respond quickly to virus mutations and future pandemics
- mRNA vaccines are more targeted than traditional vaccines
- mRNA vaccines can be vaccinated against several strains of a virus at once
To understand the implications, it is helpful to consider that the other disease outside of Covid-19 mRNA vaccines is critical to its treatment and even prevention.
Will we get a vaccine for cancer?
The specificity with which mRNA vaccines can be targeted could lead to a major breakthrough in cancer treatment. In fact, a vaccine for cancer was the reason why researchers looked at this type of vaccine in the first place.
From Karlyle Morris is a gastrointestinal oncologist at the University of Texas, Anderson Cancer Center. Together with a colleague, he is leading a clinical trial to test mRNA vaccines as “personalized therapies for patients treated for cancer, with the aim of further reducing the risk of cancer returning,” he says.
Tumors that are surgically removed from people with cancer are being tested to find a profile of the most common genetic mutations responsible for cancer. What makes an mRNA vaccine particularly useful for this, Morris says, is that the mutations are unique and specific to each individual – even among those who have the same type of cancer. Because mRNA vaccines can be targeted, each vaccine can be tailored to the needs of an individual.
The aim of the study, he said, was “to show that such a vaccine would train the immune system to release pieces of mutated proteins found in any remaining tumor cells – but not in other, unaffected cells in the body – after surgery. “then to attack and kill the remaining cancer areas.”
Is there a vaccine for HIV?
The short answer is not yet, but mRNA vaccines may change that.
“To date, a preventative vaccine for HIV has eluded us,” says Morris. ‘But this technology holds a lot of promise. This promise is possible in the early stages of realization. ”
A separate team of researchers from Scripps University in California has developed a preliminary vaccine that promises to prevent infection with the HIV virus using the same technology as in the Moderna jab.
The vaccine aims to stimulate the immune system to produce “rare but powerful” antibodies, called “broad-spectrum neutralizing antibodies.” These antibodies can attach to the peak protein used by the HIV virus to enter and neutralize cells.
William Schief, an immunologist at Scripps Research, issued a press release following a Phase 1 trial to test this vaccine, ‘that you need to activate the right b-cells to get the immune system to kill these antibodies. produce. . ”
The chance of doing so was literally one in a million, Schief said.
“In this experiment, the targeted cells were only about one in a million of all naive B cells. To get the right antibody response, we must first pump the right B cells. The data from this trial confirm the ability of the vaccine immunogen to do so. ”
Is a universal flu vaccine possible?
The two most common types of flu in humans are Flu A and Flu B. And within A and B there are different strains. And are the strains, there are “clades” and “subclades” – genetic differences within strains. In essence, flu is an old way of making multitudes of variants, just as SARS-CoV-2 is doing fast now.
When you get your annual flu shot (please get it), the formula is based on a thorough guess as to which strains of the flu virus will be prevalent that year. The process worked well for years. We can not vaccinate everyone for every possible stress, but it is also not ideal. In a good year, the vaccine provides 40 to 60 percent protection against seasonal flu. You see the picture of a bad year.
mRNA vaccines change the game. With this technology, scientists can create a vaccine that is vaccinated against types A and B in one disc. Some scientists believe that we can not only vaccinate against more than one flu strain using the same sting, but that we can also develop a flu vaccine with longer protection – one we only need every five years.
Can we get vaccinated for Zika?
Zika is a disease caused by the mosquito-borne Zika virus. The virus was first identified in 1947, but it was not widely known until 2007, when the first major outbreak occurred in humans. Zika is worn by the Aedes mosquito also carries West Nile, dengue fever and yellow fever).
Most people who catch Zika have mild symptoms, including fever and rash (symptoms similar to dengue fever). But a minority of people will develop severe disease symptoms. And if pregnant women contract the disease, it can result in birth defects (such as microcephaly) in the fetus. Zika is also strongly associated with a rare disease called Guillain-Barré. That disease attacks the nervous system and can be so paralyzing that the sufferer needs life support to breathe. To date, there is no approved Zika vaccine.
Previous attempts to make a Zika vaccine have not been very successful. But the success of a safe mRNA Covid vaccine has led Moderna to start working on an mRNA vaccine for Zika. They have just completed Phase I trials and are moving on to Phase II.
Do Covid-19 vaccines work against variants?
To the best of our knowledge, the approved vaccines for Covid-19 reduce the risk of developing serious Covid-19 disease and death, even due to current variants of the virus. But this may not always be the case – new variants can better avoid the vaccines. But again, this is where mRNA vaccines can shine.
“One exciting aspect of this technology is that the components of the mRNA vaccine can be easily redesigned and ‘recoded’ by those who manufacture it in such a way that it keeps up with viruses while changing and mutating,” says Morris.
The Reverse analysis – Any future mRNA vaccines for other diseases other than coronavirus are still in the early stages of development. We must not assume that everyone will come to their right, nor must we stop using traditional vaccines to treat and prevent disease. But what is so exciting is not only the ability to combat other, difficult-to-treat and potentially deadly diseases, it is also the technology itself.
You are probably reading this story via the World Wide Web, an idea emanating from scientists at the Particle Physics Institute CERN. We do not always know how a specific technology will be useful as we develop it, but it is exciting to find out.
Correction: An earlier version of the article incorrectly identified AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine as an mRNA vaccine. It is a viral vector vaccine.
Correction: An earlier version of the article incorrectly used the phrase ‘virus cells’ instead of ‘virus’.