This 2023, the Nobel prize for medicine or physiology has been granted to a duo of scientists who worked on the mRNA vaccine technology used as the first COVID-19 combatants.
2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine Granted to COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine Proponents
The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine work was done by Professor Katalin Karikó from the University of Szeged in Hungary as well as Dr. Drew Weissman, the director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovations. Both of them will be sharing the prize of $1.02 million, or 11 million Swedish krona.
The revolutionary work of the duo enabled messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines to not come up with an undesirable response from the immune system. This enabled the shots to enter the human body without leading to serious inflammation. Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Modern COVID-19 vaccines are grounded on this mRNA work.
Rickard Sandberg, who is part of the Nobel committee for physiology or medicine and who is from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, explained during the announcement that mRNA vaccines and other COVID-19 shots have undergone over 13 billion administrations. Sandberg notes that the duo have saved the lives of millions, hampered the severity of COVID-19, reduced the general burden of the disease, and helped societies open once more.
Aside from winning the Nobel Prize, the duo also won the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award as well as the Breakthrough Prize for their mRNA vaccine work.
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Vaccine Creation and Function
Before the creation of mRNA vaccines, earlier vaccines functioned by introducing a seriously weakened or killed version of the virus into the human body. This gives the immune system room to become immune prior to contracting or getting exposed to the full pathogen.
Other later vaccines had proteins taken from the surface of the virus. When they became exposed to the proteins, immune cells that make antibodies could block them and their source viruses. These come as shots that make use of carrier viruses that are empty for transporting blueprints of a pathogen's DNA into the human body.
The drawback is that in order to come up with these kinds of vaccines, scientists need to nurture huge cell batches, infect them with viruses, and then take away the protein and viral chunks for the vaccine. The process of doing so is quite slow and taxing, which would affect the rollout of vaccines.
Scientists in the 1980s tried to get around this by finding more efficient ways for the cells to create the necessary proteins. One technique known as in vitro transcription operated by generating mRNA directly within the cultured cells. However, there was still a big hindrance. When animals received the lab-made mRNA injections, they had a grave immune response that led to dangerous inflammations. This, in turn, harmed the animal and destroyed the vaccine.
mRNA Vaccine Revolution
The two Nobel Prize winners were able to refine the building blocks, or nucleotides, of the injected mRNA to mirror those that can be found within the body. This stopped the triggering of the immune response.
When the COVID-19 pandemic was still at its early phases, this technology enabled the rapid production of mRNA vaccines that functioned against the spike protein of the coronavirus. This protein can typically be found on the surface of the germs.
Aside from revolutionizing the vaccine production and rollout during the pandemic, the technology has also led to opportunities for rapid vaccine development for viral threats and possibly even cancer vaccines.
Dr. J. Larry Jameson, the executive vice president from the University of Pennsylvania for Health System, explains that the same approach and technology is being tested for other conditions and diseases.
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