How Does an mRNA Vaccine Work?
You may have heard of the mRNA vaccine in relation to the new covid vaccines that came into the market. mRNA is the name of a new type of vaccine that’s being developed to help combat the coronavirus pandemic. It’s the basis for many new company’s vaccines.
But What is mRNA?
mRNA, which stands for messenger ribonucleic acid, is a product made out of nucleic acids. And a nucleic acid is the type of building block that your DNA is made out of. Essentially, an mRNA is a type of code, like DNA, that encodes the building blocks of a protein.
It may sounds scary but this isn’t a foreign chemical or dangerous agent. Our bodies make it all the time. In fact it’s one of the basic building methods the body uses to make proteins in our body. There isn’t a single cell in the body that doesn’t have some amount of a protein molecule inside of it. Proteins are what make up all the little organelles and help cells perform their special functions.
To make proteins the cell gets the information, a “recipe” so-to-speak, from the DNA. But there’s a catch. The DNA code is stored inside the nucleus of the cell. And the protein making section of the cell is outside. So how do you deliver the information from the nucleus to the outside? That’s where mRNA comes in.
The mRNA takes a part of the DNA and brings it outside the cell so it can create the proteins.
So How Does The Vaccine Work?
Making an mRNA vaccine isn’t a new concept, but it is certainly a very fast way to make a vaccine. When the coronavirus pandemic began, scientists raced to sequence the genome of the COVID-19 causing virus. Scientists collaborated from all over the world with programs like the CDC’s SPHERES consortium to help establish and share the DNA of coronaviruses everywhere.
Once the genome was established, scientists were able to figure out what proteins the virus was made out of. Then they were able to figure out what to modify so that they could make an mRNA sequence that produced a similar protein to the real-deal coronavirus. This way the mRNA won’t give your cells the real virus. Instead, the mRNA codes for just a small part of the virus — maybe a protein or two. Then that harmless protein goes off into the body. Your body recognizes these particles are foreign and prepares a reaction to fight it off.
Your body’s reaction to these particles will vary for lots of reasons. But these are usually fever, aches, chills, mild muscle pain etc. — the typical “flu-like” symptoms.
Hopefully this post gives you a little bit of insight into how the vaccine works. Of course these is just superficial. If you would like to go into more detail, I will leave a list of links at the bottom:
DISCLAIMER: This article is for educational purposes only. This should not replace the specialty or counselling of your physician.
Extra Reading:
- https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/variants/spheres.html (CDC’s SPHERES)
- https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd.2017.243 (science heavy medical journal article)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbaCxIJ_VP4
