Messenger Ribonucleic Acid (mRNA) is a vaccine that helps the body fight infections mostly caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi and other microbes. Lately, the vaccine works by carrying killed or sterile pathogens to induce the formation of antibodies by the body’s dependent cells against infections. However, scientists have discovered another generation of vaccine which does not carry any killed or live (sterile) organism but an antigenic determinant (epitope) like tail fibres or spike protein which will induce the formation of antibodies specific to that epitope.
The virus that causes Covid-19
Coronaviruses are a large group of viruses that cause various illnesses ranging from the common cold to other severe diseases like Covid-19. These viruses have the identity of possessing a crown-like structure on their surfaces, called spike proteins, hence the name coronavirus.
Messenger RNA
The mRNA is becoming a tool for addressing pandemics and other global health problems; it serves as a medium or a weapon for fighting pandemics like coronavirus, hepatitis, and rabies. The mRNA vaccine uses a copy of a single-stranded molecule that serves as a carrier for genetic information coded with a special protein with a special target action. Because of its high specificity in conveying a message, scientists nowadays use it to fight long-term health-challenging problems like hepatitis, rabies and re-emerging ones like coronavirus and the recent monkeypox virus.
How the vaccine works
The mRNA vaccine works quite differently from how other third-generation vaccines like hepatitis, rabies and tuberculosis work because it does not carry any organism (either killed or sterile). Still, rather it triggers the body’s immune cells to produce specific antibodies to the specific antigenic determinant of any infectious disease agent; like in the Covid-19 virus, there is something called spikes which is composed of protein hence from the name spike protein, thus, since the mRNA carries coded information which is to be translated by body cells tell the body that this is a foreign element. Therefore, immune cells would hurriedly manufacture and synthesize specific antibodies to that spike protein which, when attacked, causes the viral nucleocapsid to become disturbed so that multiplication would be slowed down deliberately.
Vaccinology and the next phase of research
Vaccinology is a field of science that deals with vaccine design through various and rigorous means of implementation. Covid-19 has shown scientists that there is more to prepare. Thus, the next research phase on vaccines would solely focus on MessengerRNA vaccines because Covid-19 showed a need for reliable vaccines to control epidemics.
