mRNA vaccines are a new technology and thus raise a number of interesting questions. For example, why does the BioNTech vaccine require a deep, deep freeze? The answer is quite simple. To get there you have to understand the role of mRNA in our cells.
DNA > mRNA > Protein
The template for our bodies is held in our DNA. Think of it as a blueprint. To get that blueprint into a serviceable product it has to be translated and manufactured. The final output is protein. Proteins are the building blocks of our body. Why not just go from DNA to protein, why is there an intermediate step? DNA is maintained in a central department in our cells, the nucleus. Protein is not manufactured in the nucleus. You can ask why, and the best answer given is that DNA is precious stuff that needs to be protected. Manufacturing all kinds of protein in and around our DNA is risky. So, a very simple set of tools are used to make mRNA and that mRNA is moved out of the nucleus into areas where proteins are made, separate from the DNA.
To keep everything tightly controlled, mRNA has a very short half-life. Our cells are brimming with RNases, proteins that eat up mRNA like it’s candy. The life span of mRNA is carefully managed using RNases. Indeed, if a researcher is tasked with collecting mRNA, they have to figure out how to protect their mRNA from RNases which are ubiquitous and will likely contaminate their preparation. RNases are everywhere. Any cellular preparation will be contaminated. RNases are literally on your skin.
COVID mRNA vaccines require a preparation of mRNA that encodes the spike protein from COVID. That mRNA is delivered into your body where it enters cells. The proteins that normally read mRNA read the COVID spike mRNA and make spike protein. The spike protein exits your cells and is recognized by B Cells which then mount an immune response. The vaccine is using your normal cellular function to make antigens that stimulate the immune response.
The reason that Pfizer/BioNTech are freezing their prep at -70 is that RNases are less active at that temperature. They are protecting their mRNA vaccine from degradation before delivery into your body.
There are other ways to stabilize mRNA. The first is by modifying the mRNA ribonucleotides. DNA is made of four chemicals, AGCT. There are slight differences in each type but overall they look fairly similar. RNA or ribonucleic acid looks a lot like DNA. There are four types that mimic AGCT. The RNA components have one other change that makes them unique, different from DNA. Those changes also change the susceptibility of RNA to degradation. They allow RNases to recognize and cut up RNA. There are versions of the four RNA molecules, that have other modifications, that make them resistant to RNases.
One way to make a stable mRNA vaccine is to use these RNase-resistant RNA molecules. Some companies are reportedly doing this. Moderna claims to have taken a different pathway.
To deliver an mRNA encoding COVID, spike prtotein into your cell, companies wrap the mRNA into a lipid bilayer. This bilayer protects the mRNA and allows it to fuse with your cells, delivering the mRNA into your cellular cytoplasm.
What Moderna claims to have done is to modify that lipid sack. They’ve made it hardier, more resistant to RNases, and other factors that might break open the sack prior to delivery. Moderna won’t tell us what that technology is, it’s proprietary.
Are there reasons to be concerned? Yes here they are:
1. No one has ever delivered an mRNA-based vaccine to the public before. The technology was developed because it’s fast. Development had many hiccups. BioNTech is famous because they solved a major hiccup. One byproduct of mRNA production was a double-stranded contaminant that resulted in a huge inflammation reaction. That inflammation reaction was so bad that test animals died, all of them. One of the presidents at BioNTech figured out how to eliminate that contamination.
2. If you are adding stabilized mRNA to your cells, how does that change normal cellular operations? Do I want to add in an mRNA that does not act the way that mRNA usually acts in my cells? No one can answer this question long-term. Because no one has done the experiment as of yet.
3. What is in these mRNA preps? We don’t know. This research is proprietary. Consequently, companies aren’t telling us. We know everything that goes into a standard vaccine. We’ve known for decades. I can go look it up. I can see every piece of the vaccine puzzle for past vaccines. Here, I can’t and that makes me nervous. I am not anti-vaxxer. I am an anti put something in your body that is undefined, scientist, Ph.D., and all. There will always be people willing to do such things, and IMO they should be allowed. That is their right. But I won’t.
Whenever a company doesn’t tell me what is in something I’m going to take into my body I am skeptical. It reminds me of fracking. Each company that makes a fracking solution won’t tell us what’s in theirs. It’s proprietary. However, some digging shows us that the stuff in there is harmful to the environment and our bodies. I suspect they don’t tell us because they don’t want us to know what they are contaminating the groundwater with.
Pfizer and Moderna can go a long way towards credibility by patenting their product and telling us what the procedure is, and what’s in their vaccines. Until this happens, I won’t be taking either one. Yes, there is some chance the vaccine will be fine. But just like I am skeptical of the Russian vaccine because they aren’t following rigorous guidelines, I am skeptical of these vaccines because I don’t know what is in them. I will wait the extra month or so and take a traditional vaccine where I can see exactly what is in the delivered product.