The scientists Katalín Karikó and Drew Weissman they have achieved the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his research that led to the covid-19 vaccines based on messenger RNA. These are some keys to understanding this type of molecules, which transport life and can revolutionize biomedicine.
Messenger RNA (mRNA) or messenger ribonucleic acid is a type of molecule that carries genetic information necessary from one part of the cell to another to make the proteins that allow us to breathe, eat, think… in short: live.
Its mission is to transmit the genetic code from the DNA (in the nucleus of a cell) to the ribosomes, which are out of number and are responsible for making proteins.
Copy of a DNA sequence
They transmit the message in three steps: first, through a process known as “transcription”: they make a copy of a DNA sequence to develop a protein. This copy, known as mRNA, moves from the cell nucleus to the ribosomes, which translate the instructions from the mRNA and synthesize the protein.
Unlike DNA, which can survive for days, RNA just live for hours, is a fragile molecule that fulfills its mission and disintegrates; hence RNA vaccines have needed very cold temperatures to keep this molecule stable for a long time.
The way in which the mRNA in the vaccine against covid-19 works is as follows: after the injection, the vaccine particles collide with the cells and merge with themreleasing mRNA with information from the coronavirus protein.
These coronavirus proteins end up being detected by immune system cells.
Destroyed by the cell
Once its mission is accomplished, the vaccine’s mRNA ends up being destroyed by cellwithout leaving a permanent trace, although “the information” has already remained in the body so that the immune cells can use it against the virus.
The great advantage of mRNA vaccines is the speed with which they can be developed: modern it barely took 42 days in achieving an mRNA for its vaccine since China published the complete genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2compared to the 10 years it takes to develop a conventional vaccine.
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Scientists agree that, after mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccines, there is hope that this technique can be applied to others viral infectionscancer or many other diseases.
A good number of scientists believe that, in addition to transporting life, this molecule itself was the origin of life on Earth more than three billion years ago.