mRNA vaccines as an armor to combat the infectious diseases

• Published in: Travel medicine and infectious disease Vol. 52; p. 102550
• Main Authors: Priyanka, Chopra, Hitesh, Choudhary, Om Prakash
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2023; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; AIDS; Antibodies; Antigens; Body organs; Clinical trials; Communicable Diseases; Cytomegalovirus; Disease control; Disease prevention; Glycoproteins; Herpes viruses; Humans; Immune system; Infectious disease; Infectious diseases; Influenza; Intramuscular administration; Lipids; Medical research; Microorganisms; mRNA Vaccines; Nanoparticles; Pathogens; Proteins; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Sexually transmitted diseases; STD; Therapeutic; Transport; Travel medicine; Vaccination; Vaccines; Vaccines, Synthetic; Viruses; Visualization; Writing; Zika virus; Infectious disease; SARS-CoV-2; HIV; RBD; mRNA vaccines; Therapeutic; mRNA; Intramuscular administration; Immune system
• ISSN: 1477-8939; 1873-0442
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tmaid.2023.102550

While in the past, vaccines were manufactured using attenuated or inactivated microorganisms or viruses, recently a novel approach has been discovered for vaccine development, that does not rely on live bacteria or viruses but rather on a molecule called mRNA (https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/translation-dna-to-mrna-to-protein-393). mRNA vaccines function by administering a small amount of mRNA that codes for a specific viral protein, often a fragment of an outer membrane protein. In a study involving female mice and guinea pigs, the scientists compared the two vaccine delivery methods for the prevention of genital herpes and found that the HSV-2 glycoproteins C, D, and E expressed using nucleoside-modified mRNA in lipid nanoparticles provided better protection than the same antigens produced as baculovirus proteins and administered with CpG and alum [6]. The proposed three-dose regimen strategy of administering the mRNA-RBD vaccine was revealed as a promising therapeutic solution for targeting SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern [7]. Since it was discovered that liposomes can efficiently transport mRNA, significant progress has been made in the field of delivery, including advances in our knowledge of how to package mRNA and how to transport it to specific organs, both in the lab and in humans.