Breakthrough research and vaccine

 

I have taken both my doses of vaccine, the first dose was fairly easy to get since those were pre-second wave period and people arrogantly assumed -suitably egged on by politicians, that blessing will save their uniquely entitled life, the health centre was sparse, while for the second dose I really had to struggle as the online registration was mostly non available and finally managed to get one opening after much effort about 20kms from home. It is amazing the speed by which they developed these lifesaving vaccines. I had read about vaccines but the other day I read it in much detail and truly stupefied by the effort and intelligence of people involved. The picture here is of Katalin Kariko -the Hungarian American, who realised the potential of m-RNA (messenger RNA) as early as in 1989. She was ridiculed, demoted (why would people do such a thing?) and defunded. She though persisted, and with another researcher Drew Weismann, made breakthrough finding through modified RNA (incidentally Moderna stands for modified RNA) but again they were ignored. It is only recently that their research on mRNA has been recognised as it sped up the vaccine research. Within few months of genetic sequencing of virus, the vaccine was ready. It is an unprecedented achievement.

It is therefore important to spend some time to understand the basics of their work that is indeed saving millions of lives as also has potential to save more. The conventional vaccine works by exposing human body to virus in a benign way. These could be by breaking viruses into pieces or by killing or inactivating the virus. Using mRNA is entirely new way of vaccine research. They introduce mRNA into the body and turn recipients own cells into drug manufacturing factory. So, the body becomes reservoir of protein that resist the virus. This is easier said that done. The DNA (that we studied in school) carries the code of life, the genetic makeup. There are 3billion letters that make up human genetic code which are segmented into genes. The DNA though are quite passive and are dependent on mRNA as intermediary to deliver genetic instruction (hence messenger RNA) to make protein that makes cellular actions possible. These proteins are what makes life possible. Vaccine uses these mRNA to produce protein (in case of covid19 spiked variety). But again, this is quite difficult to achieve. Any outside nucleic acid (mRNA used by vaccine) triggers body’s immune system activating antiviral pathways. If you recall from your school biology the DNA consist of four base ATCG that stands for Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine and Guanine. The RNA has an extra base U that is Uracil. Uridine, that composes of uracil, is what they modified to make the outside mRNA acceptable. There are immense possibilities of this therapeutic use of mRNA ranging from cancer to fibrosis and so on. Like CRISPR Cas9 that is contributing to precision medicine (as also exciting possibility of reviving recent extinct species like Mammoth or passenger pigeon through breakthrough CRISPR gene drive) modified RNA present absolutely spectacular possibilities. We are indebted to these researchers and their amazing level of dedication and uncommon intelligence.