March 2010 April 2010 May 2010 June 2010 July 2010
August 2010
September 2010 October 2010
November 2010
December 2010
January 2011
February 2011 March 2011 April 2011 May 2011 June 2011 July 2011 August 2011 September 2011 October 2011 November 2011 December 2011 January 2012 February 2012 March 2012 April 2012 May 2012 June 2012 July 2012 August 2012 September 2012 October 2012 November 2012 December 2012 January 2013 February 2013 March 2013 April 2013 May 2013 June 2013 July 2013 August 2013 September 2013 October 2013 November 2013 December 2013 January 2014 February 2014 March 2014 April 2014 May 2014 June 2014 July 2014 August 2014 September 2014 October 2014 November 2014 December 2014 January 2015 February 2015 March 2015 April 2015 May 2015 June 2015 July 2015 August 2015 September 2015 October 2015 November 2015 December 2015 January 2016 February 2016 March 2016 April 2016 May 2016 June 2016 July 2016 August 2016 September 2016 October 2016 November 2016 December 2016 January 2017 February 2017 March 2017 April 2017 May 2017 June 2017 July 2017 August 2017 September 2017 October 2017 November 2017 December 2017 January 2018 February 2018 March 2018 April 2018 May 2018 June 2018 July 2018 August 2018 September 2018 October 2018 November 2018 December 2018 January 2019 February 2019 March 2019 April 2019 May 2019 June 2019 July 2019 August 2019 September 2019 October 2019 November 2019 December 2019 January 2020 February 2020 March 2020 April 2020 May 2020 June 2020 July 2020 August 2020 September 2020 October 2020 November 2020 December 2020 January 2021 February 2021 March 2021 April 2021 May 2021 June 2021 July 2021 August 2021 September 2021 October 2021 November 2021 December 2021 January 2022 February 2022 March 2022 April 2022 May 2022 June 2022 July 2022 August 2022 September 2022 October 2022 November 2022 December 2022 January 2023 February 2023 March 2023 April 2023 May 2023 June 2023 July 2023 August 2023 September 2023 October 2023 November 2023 December 2023 January 2024 February 2024 March 2024
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30
31
News Every Day |

The science behind the leading COVID vaccines will lead to faster manufacturing

The science behind the leading COVID vaccines will lead to faster manufacturing

The fate of the COVID pandemic may well be dictated by a biological building block that’s just several hundred nanometers long.

Messenger RNA, or mRNA, is at the heart of both leading vaccine candidates, one from Moderna and the other from Pfizer and partner BioNTech. The companies’ clinical trial data suggest these vaccines are about 95% effective. And Pfizer’s vaccine, which has already received the green light in the U.K., may start being distributed to certain Americans in just a matter of weeks.

It will be a distribution challenge and an immunization campaign the likes of which the world has never seen. But as remarkable as that challenge will be, the science that led to the creation of promising vaccines in less than a year is equally remarkable—a process that usually takes about five years or more. And in the case of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines, their pioneering technologies could make it far easier to scale up the manufacturing process.

So how does a vaccine get made, anyway? And how did academic institutes and pharmaceutical companies pull it off so quickly in the midst of a pandemic?

How a virus births a vaccine

Drugs don’t just spring out of thin air. Creating one, whether it be a therapeutic meant to treat disease or a vaccine meant to prevent it, is a fascinating process which begins with a thorough examination of the biological foe in question.

“One of the first steps of making a vaccine is to identify the weak spot in the pathogen; to identify the vaccine target,” says Peter Hotez, dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine.

The basic role of a vaccine is to induce an immune response, which will then offer protection against a pathogen by forcing your body to create antibodies which attack antigens, the components of a pathogen that produce the immune response. So when the actual virus comes knocking, your body already recognizes the intruder and can deploy its antibody arsenal.

Many common vaccines contain little bits of the virus or bacteria itself that either have been killed after being grown in a lab or are live but greatly weakened and are therefore unlikely to get you sick.

In the case of the coronavirus, identifying the “weak spot” Hotez refers to was the crucial first step. It’s something rather sinisterly named the spike protein.

“When you think of the coronavirus, everyone’s seen the pictures of the virus that has the colored spike protein, that red bit that’s protruding off that cylindrical virus compound,” says Dean Fanelli, a partner in the intellectual property department of Seyfarth Shaw LLP’s Washington, D.C., offices.

Coronavirus
Radoslav Zilinsky—Getty Images

That “spike protein” does exactly what you’d think a spiked object would do: It pierces something else. “The spike protein attaches to the ACE2 protein present in human cells. And so we know that’s how this virus actually infects people,” adds Fanelli.

The drugmakers knew they would have to teach the body to attack the antibody-attracting antigens on the spike protein. But the way in which Pfizer and Moderna went about that is very different from the traditional vaccine creation method.

Creating a COVID mRNA vaccine

Messenger RNA is a powerful biological tool. It’s the molecule that actually instructs your cells what to make, such as proteins.

Theoretically, that means you could harness mRNA to turn your body’s cells into mini drugmaking factories that can fight various diseases. As little as a year ago, large swaths of the biotech community were skeptical of using mRNA technology to make treatments.

But that’s just what the leading vaccine candidates have been able to accomplish. By leveraging the genetic code of the virus, which was made available globally by Chinese scientists earlier this year, drugmakers have been able to figure out how to use mRNA to force the body to mimic the spike protein and induce an immune response.

In essence, they go back one step from the traditional vaccine-making process. Rather than injecting the surface proteins that awaken the immune system directly into the body, Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna are injecting the RNA which codes for such proteins.

One individual who’s been a decided RNA vaccine evangelist is Phil Dormitzer, who just happens to be the vice president and chief scientific officer of Pfizer’s viral vaccines unit.

“I’ve been thinking about RNA vaccines for a long time,” he says. “Things really came together in 2018 when we agreed with BioNTech to start the new mRNA program.” That collaboration began as a quest to develop an mRNA-based flu vaccine. The focus shifted once the pandemic hit.

Dormitzer cites two specific reasons he’s enthusiastic about the technology: flexibility and the capacity to rapidly manufacture and scale up treatments. He explains that with RNA vaccines an immune response could produce both antibodies and T cells, another key immune system warrior, which is important since one or the other might be more effective against COVID.

The second reason is particularly critical at a time when these vaccines must be scaled up on a massive level for worldwide distribution.

“I think a lot of people gravitate to mRNA because you can make a piece of mRNA in a day, right?” says Baylor’s Hotez. “And there are companies that you can contract out that will make the mRNA for you.”

Unlike more traditional vaccines, you don’t have to spend months upon months manually harvesting and purifying a pathogen’s antigens in order to make the final product. You can simply let the instruction-carrying mRNA sequences loose into the body. After that, the body’s cells do that heavy lifting all by themselves.

That’s one of the reasons why Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines may have leapfrogged competitors on the regulatory front—and what may help them ramp up hundreds of millions of vaccine doses by the end of 2021.

An army of COVID vaccines

Ultimately conquering the coronavirus pandemic will likely require a motley crew of vaccines which use different technologies. Not everything is going to be an mRNA vaccine.

For instance, Hotez’s own group has been working on a COVID-19 vaccine which employs a far more traditional technology called recombinant adenovirus tech.

“We started making the new spike protein as did other groups,” he says. “It’s just that different groups are using different technologies to do it, whether it’s mRNA or. And each of the technologies has strengths and weaknesses.”

For Pfizer, one of the more complex issues is the ultracold temperature its COVID vaccine requires for storage, about negative 70 degrees Celsius. That’s precisely because of the mRNA component of its specific vaccine, which could fall apart without being thoroughly frozen. Pfizer even had to come up with a special high-tech storage and transport case to deal with that exact dilemma.

So while mRNA vaccines present some problems, the quickness they provide is exactly what’s needed in this moment. Distributing the COVID vaccines and persuading people to get them will be the next daunting challenge—and there are still plenty of other pioneering projects to come during this pandemic.

More health care and Big Pharma coverage from Fortune:

Москва

Архитектурные доминанты округов Москвы

Top 5 Websites to Watch FREE Movies - TV Shows (No Sign up!)

Top 10 Emmanuelle Seigner Movies

Top 10 Love Affair Movies of the 2000s and 2010s

I was diagnosed with cancer aged 39… you are never too rich, too famous or too young, says Dr Philippa Kaye

Ria.city






Read also

Trump's 'volatile' Truth Social stock will tank until the company is bankrupt: expert

Invasive species removed from banks of Kansas River in Topeka

Consequences of an earthquake: Historical chronology of Gerasa

News, articles, comments, with a minute-by-minute update, now on Today24.pro

News Every Day

Top 5 Websites to Watch FREE Movies - TV Shows (No Sign up!)

Today24.pro — latest news 24/7. You can add your news instantly now — here


News Every Day

The 10 Intense New Action Movies on Netflix That Left Me on the Edge of My Seat!



Sports today


Новости тенниса
WTA

Россиянка покинула WTA-1000 из-за проблем со здоровьем



Спорт в России и мире
Москва

Победителями Всероссийской олимпиады по физике стали школьники Московского региона



All sports news today





Sports in Russia today

Москва

«Радио Зенит» – информационный партнер форума «Мы вместе. Спорт»


Новости России

Game News

Красочное приключение Lona: Realm Of Colors перенесли на смартфоны


Russian.city


Москва

Раньше срока. Собянин: новая развязка улучшит движение для 600 тыс. человек


Губернаторы России
Россия

Минстрой предложил увеличить стоимость жилья в большинстве регионов России


Пассажир не успел войти в поезд и разбил стекло вагона на станции «Киевская»

Сдавший участникам атаки на «Крокус» квартиру обжаловал Касимов свой арест

Заказать недорогой ремонт шкафов купе в Москве и Московской области

Заказать недорогой ремонт кухонной мебели в районе в Москве и Московской области


Рэпер ST признался, что не смог написать песню о трагедии в "Крокусе"

Двое ставропольцев войдут в команду музыкантов Дениса Мацуева

Баста, Валерия и "Любэ" исполнили песни Муслима Магомаева

Александр Галич. "Облака". Поёт Антон Духовской.


Российская теннисистка Калинская покинула WTA-1000 из-за проблем со здоровьем

Битые корты: Медведев и Александрова вышли в четвертьфинал Miami Open

Россиянка покинула WTA-1000 из-за проблем со здоровьем

Хачанов победил Черундоло и пробился в 1/8 финала турнира ATP в Майами



Шапки женские вязаные на Wildberries, 2024 — новый цвет от 392 руб. (модель 466)

«Радио Зенит» – информационный партнер форума «Мы вместе. Спорт»

Архитектурные доминанты округов Москвы

Пассажир рейса Москва — Пермь попал в реанимацию


Миллиарды Абрамовича не помогли: либерал глумился над ЧП в "Крокусе"

Водителя водовоза, врезавшегося в лайнер в Домодедово, парализовало за рулем

Умер пермский художник, нарисовавший президента Путина с мячом

Где в России жить хорошо?


Жительница Нижнего Новгорода убила мужа и попыталась воскресить его святой водой

Архитектурные доминанты округов Москвы

Московский зоопарк: панда Катюша уедет в Китай в четыре года

Mash: ведущий Алексей Куличков попал в больницу в Подмосковье



Путин в России и мире






Персональные новости Russian.city
Анастасия Волочкова

“Настя — не из дешёвых женщин”, – У Волочковой появился молодой ухажёр с серьёзными намерениями



News Every Day

Top 10 Love Affair Movies of the 2000s and 2010s




Friends of Today24

Музыкальные новости

Персональные новости