How Do mRNA Vaccines Work?
The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are mRNA vaccines. Here are a couple of videos explaining how they work and came to be. It's ingenious, as far as I'm concerned. They simply borrow the ribosomes in our cells (protein printers, essentially) and let them produce the Covid antigens for us with 100% fidelity, while lacking allergens or other by-products that often come with traditional vaccine antigen production in labs.
And no, they don't alter anyone's DNA. They don't even go inside a cell's nucleus where the DNA is kept.
6:22 minutes...
12:25 minutes...
As a side note, The Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines are DNA vaccines, which work exactly like the mRNA vaccines, but with an extra step. They start with a packet of DNA that codes for the virus's spike protein, which goes into a cell's nucleus and then gets transcribed into mRNA there. Everything is the same after that, the mRNA that is produced gets turned into Covid antigens by the cell's ribosomes, just like with mRNA vaccines.
One benefit to doing it this way is that DNA is more shelf-stable than RNA, making DNA vaccines easier to store and distribute in less-developed countries.
DNA vaccines do go into a cell's nucleus, but even so they do not not alter a person's DNA. The complex machinery needed to incorporate it into an existing genome just isn't there, and I'm pretty sure that the cells being used (which display the antigens they produce to the immune system) will end up being destroyed by the immune system in response.
DNA and mRNA vaccines are spectacular examples of scientific progress in our time, with hugely beneficial real-world results. It's hard to overstate how important and useful their development will be in the future, even for things like fighting cancer.
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Just a little refresher, after seeing a Republican official in Florida claim last week that mRNA vaccines are bad because they "change your RNA", which is as nonsensical as it is scary, coming from a government official while Florida's Yale and Harvard educated governor stood nearby and just let the misinformation go unchecked and uncorrected in the moment.
Now that is really scary.
I saw that it was in Gainesville and it was a city employee that was fighting the mandate that city employees have to be vaccinated. DeSantis said nothing because he is against any mandates.
On a brighter note, this is quite the advancement and is a game-changer . The videos were easy to understand and should be ''must see'' for everyone.
Excellent, easy to understand videos. Unfortunately, those who need to watch these videos will not do so. And even if a few do, they will find a way to reject what they hear.
It is next to impossible to reason with the irrational.
That's the main reason I avoid certain conversations here these days. I just can't handle the stupid anymore.
Exactly, this is a game-changer technology.
Beyond that, how cool is it to reuse all the power encapsulated in cells to produce the antibodies needed to combat any virus for which we have a proper mRNA? Biological elegance!
People should know that should a new variant emerge that renders our extant vaccines impotent, we have the technology to quickly produce a new vaccine (and we have the deployment infrastructure to get it to the public).
Yup! All we have to do is incorporate mutations into the vaccine and voila! Evolutionary mischief managed.
Vaccine manufacturers don't even need to take the risk of handling the actual virus. All they need is a copy of the code from any sequencing lab anywhere in the world. It's amazing.
Great videos and it really explains a lot for laypeople.
So to recap:
DNA is our genetic code that defines us as individuals.
The primary role of RNA is to convert the information stored in DNA into proteins. These proteins tell the cell what to do.
This is the ultimate form of targeted therapy. We have been using targeted therapy for cancer via dead viruses, but this is far more effective since it doesn't get degraded by the body as a virus would, since the body could ID even a dead virus as bad.
Imagine taking specific bits of code from cancerous cells and then using our own ribosomes to translate it into antigens that teach the immune system to destroy any cells displaying a particular characteristic. It would be like unmasking cancer that had previously been successful at hiding from the immune system.
How amazing would that be? It might be able to replace chemo in many circumstances. I think that's what some of the research is trying to do.
With better specificity for cancer cells and far fewer side effects, since it would spare healthy cells.
Indeed. What an astonishing achievement that would be.
I'm not sure that there is a word to describe that achievement.
Can you just imagine, fighting cancer without some of the major side effects.
I wish I had actually went to my Cell Biology classes...
LOL. But it appears a lot of others did and are generating impressive benefits for society.
I'm very glad they did!
Yes, and clearly many did not attend biology classes, given their hostility about vaccines. An education would do them a world of good.
They get all the ‘facts’ they need from their trusted ‘authorities’. Stubborn conformity / group-think prevents learning anything outside of their bubble.
Like trying to reason with a rock.
I'd say a rock is smarter. At least it doesn't argue back against facts.
LOLOLOLOLOLOL, Trout.
But that is why these videos are so good. They help the bio impaired understand how RNA works.
I resent that, Perrie. I'm not bio impaired, tech impaired, yes. Bio impaired NO. BTW what is bio?
LMAO!!