The health department said this COVID vaccine distribution has gone about as smoothly as they could have hoped for, already giving out 400 vaccines with plenty more scheduled.
Wednesday, October 18th 2023, 10:36 am
The Tulsa Health Department says it has given out hundreds of COVID-19 vaccines since first getting the shots about two weeks ago.
The department has given out roughly 400 COVID-19 booster vaccines since first getting the shots about two weeks ago.
The health department said the distribution has gone about as smoothly as it could have hoped for, and appointments are filling up quickly.
The booster is available for everyone aged six months and older and is available at all the Tulsa Health Department locations. This version of the vaccine protects against new variants of COVID making the rounds this fall.
The health department said even though appointments are continuing to fill up, it is opening more time slots to keep up with the demand.
"We are scheduling appointments for all of our vaccines. Our appointments are filling up, but we keep opening more just as time goes by," Ellen Niemitalo, Interim Associate Director of Preventive Health Services at the Tulsa Health Department said.
So far, the health department has not heard of any negative side effects from this booster, and the reaction from the public has been pretty positive so far.
"The reaction of most people when they are coming in is just, this is one more thing that they can do routinely to protect them throughout this respiratory virus season against COVID and flu, and then help just protect themselves and their family. So it really has become more routine," Niemitalo said.
COVID vaccine appointments can be made online at the Tulsa Health Department's website. If all the appointments online are filled, the health department encourages you to give them a call to get your appointment scheduled.
CLICK HERE for information about making an appointment.
(Precision Vaccinations News)
Novavax, Inc. today announced that its prototype COVID-19 vaccine Nuvaxovid, was granted full approvalfor active immunization to prevent COVID-19 inindividuals aged 12 and older by Singapore'sHealth Sciences Authority (HSA) and the U.K.Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
In recent clinicaltrials, the protein-basedNuvaxovid(NVX-CoV2373) vaccine demonstrated the efficacy and safety of its prototype vaccine as a primary series in individuals aged 12 and older and the immunogenicity and safety of the vaccine as a booster in individuals aged 18 and older.
"Full marketing authorization of our prototype COVID-19 vaccine in the U.K. is a stepping stone to enable authorization of updated strains of our vaccine in the future," saidJohn C. Jacobs, President and Chief Executive Officer, Novavax, in a press release on October 18, 2023.
"We are working with the MHRA to provide the information needed for the rapid review of our updated protein-based non-mRNA COVID-19 vaccine as an important step to ensuring access to vaccine options in the U.K. this coming vaccination season."
Novavax Inc.'svaccinesare genetically engineered usingthree-dimensionalnanostructures ofrecombinant proteinscritical to diseasepathogenesis.
While authorized in the U.S., the trade name Nuvaxovid has not been approved by the U.S. Food and DrugAdministration (FDA).
OnOctober 3, 2023, the FDA amended its authorization of the Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine, Adjuvanted for use in individuals 12 and older, to include the2023-2024 formula.
Since December 2021,Novavax's COVID-19 vaccines have been distributed in about 40 countries.
A new studyfrom Israel ties COVID-19 infection to an increased risk of a diagnosis of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) within 6 weeks, while mRNA vaccination was linked to a decreased risk of the rare but serious autoimmune disease.
The study was published today in Neurology.
Researchers from Lady Davis Carmel Medical Center in Haifa conducted a nested case-control study involving 3,193,951 patients aged 16 years and older not previously diagnosed as having GBS seen at Clalit Health Services from January 2021 to June 2022. Each patient with GBS in the 6 weeks after infection was matched with 10 randomly selected control patients who did not have GBS.
A chronic illness with no known cure, GBS occurs when the immune system attacks the nerves, causing symptoms such as weakness and tingling in the hands and feet that spreads to the upper body and may lead to paralysis, shortness of breath, abnormal blood pressure, and difficulty walking. Most people recover with few residual effects.
Two thirds of GBS patients reported that they had symptoms of a respiratory or gastrointestinal infection in the 6 weeks before GBS diagnosis. A total of 76 patients were diagnosed as having GBS during follow-up and were matched with 760 control patients. The average age of GBS patients was 56.3 years, and half were women.
Nine of the 76 GBS patients (11.8%) and 18 of 760 controls (2.4%) had tested positive for COVID-19. Eight (10.5%) of GBS patients and 136 (17.9%) controls had been vaccinated against COVID-19, nearly all of them with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
While Guillain-Barre is extremely rare, people should be aware that having a COVID infection can increase their risk of developing the disorder, and receiving an mRNA vaccine can decrease their risk.
The odds ratios (ORs) for COVID-linked GBS and COVID-19 vaccine administration were 6.30 and 0.41, respectively, according to multivariable conditional logistic regression models. The findings were comparable when COVID-19 infection or vaccine administration occurred in the previous 1 and 2 months, although the vaccination results at 4 weeks weren't statistically significant.
"While Guillain-Barre is extremely rare, people should be aware that having a COVID infection can increase their risk of developing the disorder, and receiving an mRNA vaccine can decrease their risk," co-senior author Anat Arbel, MD, said in an American Academy of Neurology news release.
In a related editorial, Dennis Bourdette, MD, of Oregon Health & Science University, and Elizabeth Silbermann, MD, of the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Portland, Oregon, said the study results may be reassuring to patients hesitant to receive COVID-19 vaccines.
"In addition, it is possible that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine may itself lower the risk of acquiring GBS," they wrote. "Regarding research on the risk of GBS, asking whether a vaccine is associated with an increase in the background risk [of] GBS is not the only question to ask."
"The more critical question is whether the risk of vaccine-associated GBS is lower than the risk of disease-associated GBS," they added. "When it comes to risks of GBS following SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination, the preventive remedy clearly is not worse than the disease."
This article has been reviewed according to ScienceX's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:
fact-checked
peer-reviewed publication
trusted source
proofread
close
A vaccine designed to protect against three different deadly coronaviruses shows success in mouse studies, demonstrating the viability of a pan-coronavirus vaccine developed by researchers at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute.
Published in the journal Cell Reports, the single nanoparticle vaccine included components of a previous vaccine that was shown to protect mice and primates against multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2, which is the virus that causes COVID-19. In this study, the vaccine protected mice from SARS-CoV-1, another form of SARS coronavirus that can infect humans, and a MERS coronavirus that has led to periodic, deadly outbreaks around the world.
"We are making important progress toward a broadly protective coronavirus vaccine," said senior author Kevin O. Saunders, Ph.D., associate director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute. "These are pathogens that cause or have the potential to cause significant human infections and loss of life, and a single vaccine that provides protection could slow down or even prevent another pandemic."
Saunders and colleagues built the tri-valent vaccine using a nanoparticle loaded with a key fragment called a receptor binding domain from each of the coronaviruses. The fragmenta docking site on the virus that enables it to infiltrate the body's cellsprovides enough information for immune cells to build an effective response against actual coronaviruses that enter the body.
In earlier studies in mice and primates, the researchers demonstrated that an earlier iteration of the nanoparticle vaccine was effective against multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants. Human tests are planned next year for a version that carries immunogens to different SARS-CoV-2 strains, including those that have dominated since the original outbreak in late 2019.
The current work expands the components of the vaccine to include an additional SARS-related virus and MERS virus. In lab studies, as well as in mice, the researchers found that the vaccine candidate generated inhibitory immune molecules called antibodies against all three pathogenic human coronavirus types.
Importantly, vaccinated mice did not grow sick when challenged with either SARS-like or MERS-like viruses.
"This study demonstrates proof-of-concept that a single vaccine that protects against both MERS and SARS viruses is an achievable goal," Saunders said. "Given that one MERS and two SARS viruses have infected humans in the last two decades, the development of universal coronavirus vaccines is a global health priority."
More information: Vaccine-mediated protection against Merbecovirus and Sarbecovirus challenge in mice, Cell Reports (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.113248. www.cell.com/cell-reports/full 2211-1247(23)01260-3
Journal information: Cell Reports
As federal heath officials urge Americans to get the new COVID-19 booster this fall, new variants of the virus continue to spread in the United States, stoking fears about a winter surge.
In August, a highly mutated COVID-19 variant called BA.2.86, or "Pirola," made headlines after it was detected in humans and wastewater samples in the U.S. and several other countries.
Health officials have been closely monitoring the new variant as it spreads. Initially, Pirola set off alarm bells for some scientists due to its large number of mutations, which differentiate it from previous omicron subvariants that have gained dominance since 2021.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, BA.2.86 is notable because it has multiple genetic differences, and it was detected in several locations in a short amount of time, the agency said in an update on BA.2.86 on Aug. 30.
In a risk assessment, the CDC said it BA.2.86 may be more capable of bypassing existing immunity from COVID-19 vaccines or prior infection, but there is no evidence it causes more severe illness.
Less than 1,000 cases of BA.2.86 have been reported worldwide so far, and the variant did not appear to drive the late summer surge in cases and hospitalizations in the U.S., experts told NBC News.
However, concerns about Pirolas ability to cause breakthrough infections have resurfaced as health officials roll out new COVID-19 vaccines, which target the omicron XBB.1.5 variant.
Moderna and Pfizer have said their updated COVID-19 vaccines appear to generate a strong immune response against BA.2.86, and experts anticipate the shots will provide good protection against newer strains circulating this fall, TODAY.com previously reported.
Additionally, data from lab studies suggest the Pirola variant may be less contagious and immune-evasive than previously feared, NBC News reported.
It's unclear whether BA.2.86 will cause a surge in infections this winter, but there's no reason to panic, experts say.
Here's what experts know so far about BA.2.86, aka Pirola, the symptoms it's causing, its ability to spread and how it could impact COVID vaccine vaccines this fall.
BA.2.86, which health experts dubbed Pirola on social media, was first detected in late July. It appears to have descended from the omicron BA.2 sublineage, which caused surges of the virus in early 2022, Andrew Pekosz, Ph.D., virologist at Johns Hopkins University, tells TODAY.com.
The critical thing about this variant (BA.2.86) is that it has a whole host of mutations compared to some of the omicron variants that emerged about two years ago, says Pekosz.
Early data show BA.2.86 has 34 more mutations in its spike protein than BA.2, which drove a COVID surge in 2022, and an additional 36 more mutations than XBB.1, which rapidly took over the U.S. in early 2023, according to an Aug. 24 paper in The BMJ.
The mutations or changes in the virus sequence can affect how contagious a virus is, how well it responds to treatment and how severely it affects people, per the CDC.
It represents a highly mutated form of SARS-CoV-2, says Pekosz in other words, BA.2.86 looks very different from the prevailing omicron XBB subvariants circulating.
Right now, "there's no data on symptoms associated with infection because the case numbers are just too small," Pekosz says.
In its risk assessment of BA.2.86, the CDC said "at this point, there is no evidence that this variant is causing more severe illness," but this may change as additional scientific data comes in.
Common symptoms of other COVID-19 variants and subvariants include:
Based on what the CDC knows now about BA.2.86, existing tests and medications used to treat COVID-19 "appear to be effective with this variant," the agency said.
The World Health Organization first classified BA.2.86 as a variant under monitoring on Aug. 17. Since then, BA.2.86 variant has been linked to over 640 cases in 30 countries, per the global virus database GISAID.
The countries reporting the highest number of cases are the United Kingdom, United States, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Canada, South Africa, and France. BA.2.86 has also been detected in wastewater samples in additional countries, the CDC said.
So far, there have been 65 cases reported in at least 15 in the U.S. in either people or wastewater, per GISAID and the CDC.
The variant is probably spreading much more broadly than weve detected so far, says Pekosz, adding that a lack of testing and sequencing is likely causing a delay in reporting.
Right now, the EG.5 or Eris subvariant, a descendant of the omicron XBB sublineage, accounts for the largest proportion, 23.6%, of COVID-19 infections in the U.S., according to the latest estimates from the CDC.
After EG.5, the next most common subvariant circulating in the U.S. is another omicron XBB descendant, HV.1, followed by the closely related FL.1.5.1 or "Fornax," and offshoots of the XBB.1.16 orArcturus variant, per CDC data as of Oct. 13.
Globally, EG.5 and XBB.1.16 are the most prevalent COVID-19 strains, according to the latest WHO COVID-19 situation report.
Right now, it's too early to tell whether BA.2.86 is more transmissible than other variants, says Pekosz. "It's impossible to gauge anything about transmissibility or disease severity from that (small number of cases)," he adds.
However, based on what we know about the genetic sequence of BA.2.86 and the mutations in its spike protein, the variant will likely be able to escape preexisting immunity to COVID-19, Pekosz says.
The CDC echoed this in its BA.2.86 risk assessment, which stated that the variant could be more capable of causing infection in people who previously had COVID-19 or got vaccinated.
"Most of the mutations that we find in the spike protein are probably going to affect the ability of antibodies to bind and neutralize the virus," Pekosz adds.
In other words, BA.2.86 could escape not only immunity from vaccination or prior infection up until this point, but also vaccine-induced immunity from the coming fall vaccine, Pekosz adds.
"That's why this variant is very concerning to us from a scientific standpoint," he adds. "We need more sequences and cases to understand the variant's transmissibility."
According to the CDC, laboratories are currently researching the antibody neutralization of BA.2.86 to better understand how the immune system may interact with the virus.
We really dont know if BA.2.86 will lead to increased numbers of cases, Pekosz says. "The sequence cant tell us how much disease the virus will cause, nor can it tell us how well its spreading," says Pekosz. Only time and more data will tell.
However, the BA.2.86 does not appear to be behind the late summer COVID surge around the country, which was likely driven by a combination of EG.5 and otheromicron variantscirculating.
Nationwide, COVID hospitalizations appear to be trending downwards. In the last two weeks, average daily hospitalizations in the U.S. decreased by 9.5%, according to anNBC News analysis.
However, CDC director Dr. Mandy Cohen said that cases are expected to increase this fall and winter, TODAY.com previously reported.
In September, federal health officials approved a new COVID-19 booster to roll out this fall. The updated vaccines for 2023-2024, which target the omicron XBB.1.5 variant, are recommended by the CDC for everyone ages 6 months and older.
In recent weeks, millions of doses have arrived at pharmacies and doctors offices around the country. The CDC encourages everyone eligible to get at least one dose of the updated vaccine to protect against serious outcomes of COVID-19 this fall and winter.
Right now, there are three vaccine options authorized by the FDA. These include two mRNA vaccines from drugmakers Moderna and Pfizer, which are recommended for everyone ages 6 months and older, as well as a protein-based shot from Novavax, which is approved for everyone ages 12 and older.
Manufacturers have reformulated the vaccines to protect against the omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant, which was the dominant strain circulating for most of 2023 but has since been overtaken by Eris, Fornax, and Arcturus.
Although the new boosters do not include BA.2.86, recent data has suggested that the updated vaccines may provide more protection than initially thought against Pirola.
Moderna said that clinical trial data confirmed its new vaccine "showed an 8.7 to 11-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies against circulating variants, including BA.2.86."
The boosters will be well-matched to the other strains currently making people sick, says Pekosz and they will still be effective at reducing severe disease and hospitalization, per the CDC so it's important for people to stay up to date with COVID vaccines.
The CDC is encouraging everyone eligible get at least one dose of the updated COVID-19 vaccine, especially those at higher risk, which includes people over the age of 65, those with underlying health conditions and the immunocompromised.
In addition to vaccination, people can protect themselves against COVID-19 by taking precautions such as wearing a mask, practicing social distancing, avoiding sick people and maintaining good hand hygiene.
Caroline Kee is a health reporter at TODAY based in New York City.
The page you requested was not found. You may have followed an old link or typed the address incorrectly.
We've also been doing some house cleaning so the page may have been moved or removed.
Please try searching for what you are looking for or you could go to the home page and start from there. Or you may be interested in today's top stories.
TIMESOFINDIA.COM | Last updated on - Oct 19, 2023, 13:00 IST
15
25
Advertisement
35
45
55
Get notifications on latest TOI news
Expand
Next Story
A vaccine has been designed to protect against three deadly coronavirus strains and has been successful in mouse studies. The vaccine developed by researchers at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute demonstrates the viability of a pan-coronavirus vaccine. The vaccine offers protection against "SARS-CoV-1, another form of SARS coronavirus that can infect humans, and a MERS coronavirus that has led to periodic, deadly outbreaks around the world," the institute has said in an official statement.
The vaccine has been designed by Kevin O. Saunders, Ph.D., associate director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute and his colleagues. The vaccine has used a nanoparticle loaded with receptor binding domain from each of the coronaviruses. This provides information to the body's immunity system to work against the coronaviruses when they infect the body.
This study demonstrates proof-of-concept that a single vaccine that protects against both MERS and SARS viruses is an achievable goal, Saunders said. Given that one MERS and two SARS viruses have infected humans in the last two decades, the development of universal coronavirus vaccines is a global health priority.
So far, the researchers have published the result of the vaccine trial on mouse. The findings have been published in the Cell journal. "Human tests are planned next year for a version that carries immunogens to different SARS-CoV-2 strains, including those that have dominated since the original outbreak in late 2019," the institute has siad. The researchers aim to include additional SARS-related virus and MERS virus to the components of the vaccine.
MERS or Middle East respiratory syndrome is a viral illness cause by a type of coronavirus. It was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012. The common symptoms of MERS are shortness of breath, diarrhea, fever and cough. Some patients also expeirence organ failure and septic shock due to MERS. Currently, no vaccine or specific treatment for MERS is currently available.
Is COVID back? 10 recent developments to know
Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that everyone in the U.S. 6 months and older receive an updated Covid vaccine targeting the XBB.1.5 variant. Since then, some notable voices, including Paul Offit, have publicly questioned whether the updated vaccine is needed for those who are not in a high-risk group. He recently wrote, At this point in the pandemic, it is hard to make a case for vaccinating everyone. Lets focus on those who are most likely to benefit. Otherwise, we run the risk of further confusing and frustrating the American public.
Of course there is room for reasonable debate on this important topic. But so far these arguments have been light on specific evidence and are themselves prone to causing confusion (at least if my family and friends are any indication). They downplay both the individual and population-level benefits of vaccination and risk undermining the uptake of the updated Covid vaccine among those who need it most.
Updated Covid vaccinations for all makes sense for eight key reasons:
1.) There is little downside. The vaccines are extremely safe. Skeptics have not been able to cite any real downsides of getting vaccinated. The Covid-19 vaccines are now among the most distributed and safety monitored vaccines in history. The risk of myocarditis for young adult males is even lower upon subsequent doses than the already very small risk following primary series doses, and the risk of adverse cardiac outcomes in this group was many times higher after a Covid infection than after vaccination.
2.) Its not obvious who is high-risk. Universal recommendations are simpler and likely increase uptake in the most vulnerable. The message that the Covid vaccine is not necessary for some is confusing and will deter many people who would benefit from getting it because they dont realize they are high risk. Theres good reason for that: There is no clearly defined group that has no risk of severe Covid, and it is not easy to know who is at highest risk. Increasing age is the strongest risk factor, but otherwise most people dont know if they are particularly vulnerable to severe Covid or not. Even age isnt clear-cut. Many older people I know underestimate their risk based on age alone because they are generally healthy.
Also, the vast majority of the U.S. population has an underlying condition that would qualify under a risk-based recommendation. (For example, more than 70% of adults are overweight or obese). There is evidence that universal recommendations for flu vaccination increased uptake among the most vulnerable groups.
3.) Covid vaccines protect against Covid. I dont want to get Covid. Even for healthy people who dont end up in the hospital, Covid can be a nasty illness that can mean days or weeks of missed work and school. I get the flu shot every year to avoid getting really sick, even for a few days. That protection is worth a lot to me, even if it only lasts for the three- to four-month flu season. Neutralizing antibodies increase considerably after vaccination, lowering (but not eliminating) the risk of infection for several months. The updated XBB Covid vaccine is still a good match to circulating variants, meaning this near-term protection may be particularly good right now.
4.) Vaccination likely reduces the risk of long Covid and helps in the recovery for some. Those questioning universal vaccination have been noticeably silent about long Covid. Each Covid infection confers some additional risk of longer-term consequences. Evidence presented at the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting on the updated vaccine suggested three doses of vaccine were more protective than two doses against long Covid. There is also suggestive evidence that vaccination can alleviate existing long Covid symptoms. While the evidence on long Covid and vaccination is still developing, its more than enough to merit consideration in these conversations.
5.) Fewer infections mean less transmission. Less transmission means fewer cases. Fewer cases means fewer serious cases and deaths. Thats math. While Covid vaccines dont block transmission completely as we once hoped, they do reduce the likelihood of transmission. The outspoken voices who say we dont need universal vaccination are not thinking in terms of population health. If my vaccine protects me from an infection, even in the short term, I cant pass the virus to others. This means that my vaccine also protects other people, particularly those whose immune systems dont respond as well to vaccines.
And even if I do get infected, a recent vaccination has been shown to lower the risk of transmission to household contacts. Thinking only about individual-level benefits discounts population-level benefits of broader vaccination like fewer cases overall.
6.) We do need updated vaccines, and lots of people didnt get the last one. While some argue that the primary Covid vaccine series is sufficient to protect against severe disease and death without additional doses, the evidence suggests otherwise. This year, a large percentage of those hospitalized for Covid-19 had been vaccinated with the primary series but not the bivalent booster, even under age 65 (see figure below). There is evidence that the 2022 bivalent booster, especially in the first few months after receipt, provided additional protection against critical illness and hospitalization, including at the younger ages Offit suggests dont need another dose. The study Offit cites to argue that not everyone benefited from additional doses of vaccine doesnt actually say that at all. It looks only at the relative risk of severe disease in people with two doses of the vaccine and different risk factors, finding not surprisingly that the risk was higher among older people and those with comorbidities.
7.) Kids benefit from the vaccine, too. While kids ages 5-17 have the lowest burden of severe illness, hundreds in this age group have died due to Covid-19 in the U.S. Half of the deaths were in kids with no underlying conditions. The rate of Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths in kids is higher than pre-vaccine rates for chicken pox and meningitis, vaccine-preventable diseases for which there are universal vaccine recommendations. No parent will be surprised to learn that the majority of the time, children are the source of household Covid transmission.
So besides protection from severe disease which is a real concern reducing acute illness in kids means fewer days of missed school for kids and work for parents (not to mention teachers). Babies under 6 months old are not eligible for the vaccine but infants under 1 year old have the highest pediatric rates of Covid hospitalization and death, so reducing infections in older siblings protects them, too. Take-up of the vaccine in kids overall has been very low, so a universal recommendation for the updated vaccine could help increase overall coverage.
8) The cost-benefit makes sense. I get it: Vaccines are not free to society. While the federal government paid on average around $21 per dose for previous Covid vaccines, it will pay more than three times that this year. Private insurers will pay even more than that. While the vaccine is free to both insured and uninsured individuals, this cost is still real.
But cost-benefit scenarios presented to ACIP showed that universal vaccination was worth the cost under most scenarios. Compared with only vaccinating those older than 65, universal vaccine recommendations were projected to prevent about 200,000 more hospitalizations and 15,000 more deaths over the next two years. These modeling exercises dont even typically account for things like potential long Covid and lost productivity of parents staying home with sick kids. So, if anything the collective benefits are likely underestimated.
While its true that some countries are taking a high-risk only approach to updated vaccines, that by itself doesnt mean its the right choice. In the U.K., some members of Parliament have pushed to expand the scope of the fall Covid vaccine roll-out to alleviate winter pressures on the National Health Service.
The initial launch of the updated Covid vaccines in the U.S. has been bumpy without pandemic-era emergency funding and distribution. Canceled appointments can deter even the most enthusiastic vaccine seekers. Messages from trusted public health experts downplaying the benefits of vaccination will only reduce the incentive to push through logistical hassles.
The bottom line is that everyone can benefit from the updated Covid vaccine. So if youre on the fence, hop on off of it.
Jennifer Beam Dowd is a professor of demography and population health at the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, University of Oxford. She is also editor-in-chief of the science communication platform Those Nerdy Girls.
Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at www.springernature.com/us). Scientific American maintains a strict policy of editorial independence in reporting developments in science to our readers.
All Rights Reserved.
Many people first became familiar with the term mRNA when Pfizers and Modernas COVID vaccines were rolled out. In the simplest terms, mRNA, which stands for messenger ribonucleic acid, is a type of genetic material that gives cells in our bodies instructions to make specific proteins.
More recently the 2023 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine was awarded to Katalin Karik and Drew Weissman from the University of Pennsylvania for their discoveries in mRNA biology.
These scientists work has underpinned multiple successful COVID vaccines, which undoubtedly shifted the course of the pandemic. But their discoveries have likewise opened the door to a range of possible therapeutics which, until recently, remained elusive.
Read more: Nobel prize in medicine awarded to mRNA pioneers here's how their discovery was integral to COVID vaccine development
Within each of our cells are ribosomes, micro-machines that manufacture proteins, which in turn make up everything from muscle and bone to enzymes and hormones.
mRNA is the intermediate chemical message that carries the genetic code locked in the chromosomes of our DNA to the cytoplasm, the fluid that fills our cells and where proteins are made.
The ability to deliver genetic information directly into a cell has been one of medicines most obstinate challenges. While mRNA was theoretically the most attractive way to achieve this, it was of little use as a therapy. This is because our immune system mistakes the foreign RNA as being an invading virus, mounting a powerful and toxic immune response. Injecting naked mRNA therefore can make you very sick.
So it was pivotal when Karak and Weissman pioneered a technique to cloak mRNA from the immune system, alongside lipid nanoparticles to protect the RNA and allow it to be delivered safely to our cells.
This paved the way for mRNA COVID vaccines which instruct our cells to make spike proteins, proteins on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID). This is turn primes our immune system to make anti-spike antibodies that then block SARS-CoV-2 from infecting our cells.
Their discovery has opened up new possibilities for how we treat common infectious illnesses as well as genetic diseases that have previously defied treatment.
Influenza kills up to 650,000 people globally each year. At the moment, seasonal vaccines need to be made annually once the main circulating strain has been identified. Manufacture takes about six months, by which time the original flu strain may have evolved. At best the seasonal vaccine is about 60% effective.
We need a better vaccine and mRNA technology offers the potential of a universal influenza vaccine, with multiple candidates currently undergoing human clinical trials. A vaccine, if successful, could replace the current seasonal shots.
The mRNA vaccines are based on a specific part of the influenza protein, called hemagglutinin, teaching the cells to recall it and therefore inducing broad immunity across many influenza strains. In this vaccine, hemagglutinin is the equivalent target the spike protein is in the COVID vaccines.
Read more: 3 mRNA vaccines researchers are working on (that aren't COVID)
Targeting cancer is another promising avenue for mRNA technology, with mRNA-based cancer immunotherapies already at the trial stage.
One technique uses mRNA to mimic neoantigens (short bits of tumour proteins on the surface of the tumour cells) identified from an individual patients tumour cells. Once delivered to the patients immune system, their body should produce powerful killer cells called cytotoxic T cells, eliciting a strong anti-tumour immune response.
Chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-T) therapy is a form of cancer immunotherapy currently in use around the world to treat certain forms of leukaemia. It uses immune cells called T cells that are genetically altered in a lab to help them locate and destroy cancer cells more effectively.
Traditionally CAR-T therapy has required a patients T cells to be harvested from white blood cells, modified, and then injected back into the patient. With mRNA technology the time consuming and most expensive steps are could be eliminated by delivering the CAR gene directly to T cells in the bloodstream.
mRNA technology is also transforming our response to some genetic diseases. Hereditary angioedema is a rare and potentially fatal genetic disorder where patients suffer severe and repeated attacks of swelling in their organs and tissues.
Scientists had discovered that a specific liver gene called KLKB1 prompts these swelling attacks. Researchers developed mRNA as a system to genetically edit and in turn silence the offending gene, with initial results positive for patients.
A similar trial using mRNA to edit the liver gene transthyretin alleviated symptoms in patients suffering a life-threatening hereditary condition called ATTR amyloidosis which affects the nerves and heart.
Therapeutics based on mRNA technology are still in their infancy and hurdles remain. For example, mRNA is short-lived in cells and protein is only made for a short time. Increasing the life-span of mRNA in cells would reduce the amount of mRNA required (the dosage). Scientists are working on this and a couple of methods have shown promise.
These caveats aside, the ability to deliver genetic information directly into cells could be a new frontier for medical therapeutics.
