Vaccines are an essential factor for the survival of human beings; they will protect you and your children from lethal diseases, some even without a cure. The integration of mRNA technology in the manufacture of vaccines has become a game-changer. Though the debate about the technology among the patients is at its infancy, scientists and researchers have dealt with mRNA technology in medicine for several decades.
mRNA Vaccine
The mRNA vaccines help body cells to manufacture foreign proteins similar to ones produced by pathogens but harmless. The foreign proteins stimulate acquired immune response, thus training the body to identify and destroy similar pathogens or cancer cells. If you contract the disease after the vaccination, your body recognizes the foreign protein spike and induces the immune system to fight and destroy the pathogens.
Advantages of mRNA Vaccines Over Traditional Vaccines
1. Safety
Most traditional vaccines utilize inactivated viruses to induce the body to produce an immune response. Other vaccines require introducing the foreign protein of the pathogen into the body to induce an immune response. However, with mRNA vaccines does not contain viruses hence it’s non-infectious. Instead, mRNA vaccines train the body to produce foreign protein to prepare the body to recognize and attack pathogens.
mRNA does not require chemicals for activation, unlike other vaccines, which need chemicals or cultures. Hence, mRNA does not pose the risk of chemical contamination.
2. mRNA Do Not Alter DNA
Once you receive an mRNA vaccine, it does not enter the cell nucleus, which hosts DNA. The mRNA enters the cell, but it does not enter into the cell nucleus; hence it does not alter the DNA of the cells. Also, mRNA degrades fast; thus, it does not remain in the body for long once injected.
3. Potency
To increase efficiency, scientists have modified mRNA using a nucleoside to prevent degradation and ensure high efficiency in cell delivery. Consequently, the cells can produce enough spike proteins, for example, in SARS- CoV-2 vaccine. As a result, your body responds with an efficient immune response.
4. Mass Production of mRNA Vaccine
The production of vaccines using mRNA technology is flexible, and it’s easy to scale up the quantities of production. Since the mRNA vaccine production is sequence-independent, it is flexible in that developers can utilize the same process in developing different vaccines. As technology advances, the production of mRNA vaccines will become cheaper.
The use of mRNA vaccines also eliminates the need for mass production of viruses and other pathogens scientists require to manufacture traditional viral-based vaccines.
5. Ease of Making Personalized mRNA Vaccines
Personalized mRNA vaccines production is faster, cheaper, and of high efficacy than the traditional methods of making vaccines. For example, melanoma cancer patients receive mRNA immunotherapy that matches the DNA of their cancer cells. The technology involves taking genetic samples of the cancer cells and healthy blood cells for analysis and sequencing to produce mRNA therapeutic nucleotides.
Conclusion
The mRNA vaccines have a lot of potential in treating hard-to-cure diseases. By making specific tweaks to the synthetic mRNA, any individual cell can heal itself. The power of mRNA to help detect and fight infections is enormous. In addition, mRNA vaccines are specific; they train your body only to produce a particular protein. Thus the chances of mRNA vaccine producing counteractive antibodies are great exceptionally minimal.