What is mRNA Vaccine? How Does it Help to Fight Against COVID-19?

Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman developed COVID vaccine, mRNA that won the Nobel Prize 2023. Know how mRNA vaccines work and what did the scientists actually find out?

On Monday, The Nobel Assembly awarded Hungarian-American biochemist Katalin Karik and immunologist Drew Weissman the Nobel Prize 2023 for their remarkable work on mRNA vaccines. Their research has been groundbreaking in the fight against COVID-19, as the development of this vaccine enabled against the virus that killed millions of people. But what is this vaccine and how are they made? Let’s understand.

What is mRNA Vaccine? How does it Work?

mRNA or messenger RNA is a type of genetic module that plays an important role in the process of protein synthesis in cells. Its job is to process human cells to create antigens-proteins that are similar to the ones found in the COVID-19 virus. These antigens help a person’s immune system to fight the virus and neutralise COVID if it enters the body. After the cells create these proteins, the body breaks down the mRNA instructions and gets rid of them. Such process with cells aims to fight the virus by building antigens into the system.

Where Did mRNA Vaccine Come From?

The first big breakthrough, in the late 1970s, was in using mRNA to make test-tube cells produce proteins. A decade later, the result was effective in MICE, but the vaccine had two major drawbacks. One was the cells in live animals resisted synthetic mRNA, provoking a serious response. Also, mRNA molecules are weak, making them deliver the system without changing them

In 2005, Kariko and Weissman of Penn State University published a study showing a lipid-fat molecule could safely deliver mRNA without any side effects. This created a shocker in the medical industry and many doctors and health professionals around the world began to witness and function the mRNA therapy. This breakthrough laid the foundation for the development of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines, which have proven to be safe and effective to fight COVID-19.

Scientists are working on developing mRNA jabs for illnesses like seasonal flu, rabies, Zika, Malaria and AIDS. Researchers have started testing treatments on cancer patients, to create a specialised mRNA. Till now there has been no proof whether mRNA helps fight off other infections.