Reading time is 10 mins
.
.
WHAT IS MRNA? ARE BIONTECH AND SINOVAC MRNA VACCINES? SO, HERE ARE THE MRNA VACCINES
BioNTech is one of the vaccines applied in Turkey during the coronavirus epidemic. During the pandemic, two types of vaccines, inactive and mRNA, began to be administered. mRNA is also known as messenger RNA. So, which ones is the mRNA vaccine?
The mRNA vaccine is being made available as a BioNTech in Turkey. Is the Sinovac mRNA vaccine compatible with vaccination?’ the question is also among those decried. Sinovac, which is administered against COVID-19, is an inactive vaccine. So, what does mRNA mean, what are mRNA vaccines?
.
WHAT IS MRNA, WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
Turkey Medicals, “The Ministry of Health has identified the mRNA vaccine. A vaccine containing RNA, which carries the genetic code of the virus. After the vaccine is injected into the person, the person’s cells produce substances that stimulate the immune system (antigen) using this genetic code and activate the immune system.” was said.
.
WHICH ARE THE MRNA VACCINES?
mRNA Vaccines are vaccines that contain the mRNA of the antibody-forming antigenic structure of the targeted microorganism. (For example, Comirnaty- Pfizer Biontech mRNA vaccine, Moderna mRNA vaccine)
.
4 MORE VACCINES ARE COMING FOR THE DISEASE… WHAT AWAITS US IN THE FUTURE OF MRNA?
The mRNA vaccines, the foundations of which were laid in Hungary in the 1970s and which have been our most powerful weapon against Covid-19 in the last 1 year, will also shield many deadly diseases, especially cancer, in the coming years. We have also put under the spotlight for you these developments that will save hundreds of thousands of lives every year in the future.
The Covid-19 pandemic has been in our lives for about two years. We have witnessed many success stories in this process. Especially in the early stages of the epidemic, the lives that health workers around the world saved by ignoring their lives day and night were written in gilded letters in history books.
But there is a success story that is of great importance not only for the pandemic, but also for future work in the field of medicine. We are talking about messenger RNA, or more commonly known by its short name mRNA technology, and vaccines that use this technology. This mRNA, which forms the basis of the Moderna vaccine with the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine also used in our country, is now considered one of the greatest weapons of humanity in the face of the coronavirus.
Of course, the power of mRNA technology, which allows developing very effective vaccines against the virus in a very short period of time, is not limited to this. Scientists note that in the near future, many other vaccines using this technology will be produced, and thanks to mRNA vaccines, many other diseases can be stopped, just like Covid-19.
The Guardian newspaper, published in the UK, recently published a news story that focuses on mRNA vaccine studies related to four of these diseases. According to experts who spoke to the newspaper, the heralds of flu, cancer, malaria and HIV vaccines manufactured with mRNA technology are coming very soon.
On the occasion of this news from The Guardian, we wanted to refresh our memories of the history and working principles of mRNA vaccines, as well as take a closer look at the prospects for their immediate future.
.
THE FOUNDATIONS WERE LAID IN THE 1970S
One of the most frequently raised questions in the discussions on Covid-19 vaccines is the following: “How was this technology developed in such a short time?” However, mRNA technology is not new, its history dates back to the 1970s.
The potential of this technology, the foundations of which were laid by the Hungarian-born scientist Katalin Kariko, was realized in the early 1990s. in 1998, when Kariko’s path crossed with Drew Weissman, who conducted research on HIV vaccines, progress in mRNA studies also accelerated.
.
THE NAME OF HOPE IS MRNA
mRNA: Once upon a time no one was taking it seriously, today it’s saving the world mRNA: Once upon a time no one was taking it seriously, today it’s saving the world.
in the early 2010s, the foundations of Covid-19 vaccines were also laid when two small biotechnology startups, Moderna and BioNTech, purchased the license for the technology developed. Before the pandemic, BioNTech was focused on producing a cancer vaccine with mRNA technology. The use of vaccine production against diseases such as the flu was still under consideration. Moderna was similarly working to use this technology in cancer drugs. It hasn’t been long since the company started its vaccine studies.
.
COVID-19 HAS CHANGED PRIORITIES
But the managers of BioNTech and Moderna soon realized that this virus, which first appeared in China and soon spread throughout the world, would turn into a pandemic, would be very deadly, and that the way to stop the disaster was through the technology at their disposal.
“You need to focus on the vaccine, I’m very serious about it,” CEO of BioNTech, told researchers at his company, explaining that millions of people could die because of this new virus. His wife said, “He has convinced us all. He convinced all of us, including our board of directors, employees and scientific teams, that this is our duty and that we should pursue this mission,” he summed up CEO of BioNTech’s determination in the process.
CEO of Moderna, agreed. He told his team that the vaccine was a priority and insisted that it should be studied, heeding all the hesitations. And, finally, history has justified these two scientists and businessmen.
.
MRNA VACCINES WORK LIKE AN ORDER MESSAGE
So how do mRNA vaccines work? Associate Professor of Medical Microbiology and Medical Virology. Dr. asked this question in May, Turkey Medicals in an exclusive interview with, he replied with a simple analogy.
Stating that thousands of proteins are constantly produced in our cells for the continuity of human life, CEO of BioNTech said, “How much and for how long which protein will be produced is transmitted to that cell through signals such as hormones. When the signal reaches the cell nucleus, a text message is sent from our DNA to the factories inside the cell about the protein that needs to be synthesized. mRNAs are molecules that carry this message. Just like the text messages we send with our phones,” he said.
CEO of BioNTech likened mRNAs to orders sent to protein manufacturing factories and continued as follows:
“In viral infections such as Covid-19, viruses enter the cell and place orders of their own accord. The factories in the cell that enter the virus quit their jobs and produce the proteins needed for the viruses to multiply. A vaccine, on the other hand, enters the cell before the virus, ordering only one protein (S protein). The foreign protein produced by this order is recognized by the immune system in our body and a strong immune response is given when we encounter a virus that carries the same protein in the future.”
CEO of BioNTech and CEO of Moderna are two stubborn men who saved the world:
.
EFFECTIVE IN DISEASES WHERE TRADITIONAL VACCINES ARE INSUFFICIENT
mRNA vaccines for the treatment of genetic diseases of the exit point, the second main area is in the treatment of cancer and many other diseases that are tested for reminding CEO of BioNTech in the last 10 years, the standard of these vaccines-traditional methods are insufficient vaccination influenza, HIV, rabies, Ebola, HPV, Zika and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever viruses, and some parasites, such as bacteria and could be effective in dealing with the virus, he said.
As we said above, The Guardian recently announced that influenza (flu), cancer, malaria and HIV vaccines, one of these diseases that CEO of BioNTech also highlighted, will become part of our lives in the very near future. The news, which also included the opinions of experts conducting vaccine research, renewed the hopes of a cure for these four diseases, which take hundreds of thousands of lives every year.
.
FLU
For scientists working on the flu, an exciting wait begins in February every year. Experts are eagerly waiting for the World Health Organization to announce its predictions about which type of flu virus will prevail in the next winter season.
There are four different flu viruses circulating in the world. Since each of them is constantly evolving, the vaccines of previous years lose their effectiveness in the face of the new state of viruses. Manufacturers of flu vaccines need to start production at least 6 months in advance. The flu vaccine is produced using attenuated viruses that are replicated in millions of chicken eggs, and this is a rather laborious process.
If the World Health Organization’s forecast holds, the vaccines produced can be up to 60 percent effective. But the effectiveness of vaccines produced against the wrong type of virus decreases by up to 10 percent.
Influenza virus:
For many years, flu researchers have been working on a universal vaccine that can act against all four types of viruses and will not be affected by the change of genomes of viruses in the future. It is believed that these vaccines should target the influenza protein at the heart of the virus, because the protein is more or less the same for all four different types of viruses. But since people’s immune systems do not react very much to this part of the virus, the goal of a universal flu vaccine has been unattainable for many years.
That’s exactly where mRNA vaccines come in. The fact that mRNA can be produced quickly and easily allows us to simultaneously target multiple parts of the virus.
Microbiologist from the University of Pennsylvania and his team are also working on this. “It will be very likely that such a vaccine will trigger far-reaching protective responses,” was said.
The vaccine candidate that Microbiologist is working on is designed to be effective against multiple influenza viruses using 10-12 mRNA particles. The team aims to start manned trials in 2023.
.
CANCER
HPV, that is, the human papillomavirus, is the cause of many varieties of cervical cancer, which threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of women around the world. Thousands of women’s lives are saved every year thanks to the vaccine developed against this virus.
Scientists hope that in the future, using mRNA vaccines, they will be able to teach the immune system to notice mutations in cells in advance, thereby preventing cancer. Regarding this study, which is a new approach to cancer treatment, Prof. “We are taking advantage of the known genetic progression of cancer, ” was said.
Professor and her team, who are working on cancer vaccine technology at Duke University, are preparing to trial an mRNA vaccine in patients with advanced breast cancer next year. Due to mutations in certain genes of these patients, tumors become unresponsive to drugs. The advantage of mRNA is that it can hit multiple targets (if we need to talk about this example specifically, a large number of potential mutations) at once. “The best surgeon on Earth who can remove these mutated cells at an early stage is your immune system,” was said.
If successful, the focus will be primarily on slowing the progression of cancer and extending the life expectancy of patients. In the next period, people at high risk of cancer (for example, those with certain gene mutations) will be vaccinated to try to completely prevent the disease.
.
MALARIA
In October, the World Health Organization approved a malaria vaccine for the first time, but there is still a long way to go in this regard, because the effectiveness of the RTS,S vaccine against malaria is still 30 percent. In this context, the most important problem is that the parasite that causes malaria has evolved to prevent the formation of immune memory. In other words, people who have been vaccinated, even those who have had this disease and recovered, face the risk of re-infection. Malaria causes the death of 500 thousand people every year, the majority of whom are infants and children.
Professor from Yale School of Medicine In 2012 and his colleagues found that malaria causes “immune system amnesia,” that is, memory loss, using a protein called PMIF that kills memory T-cells. We are currently working on a type of RNA vaccine that will allow us to become immune to PMIF.
Malaria affects babies and children especially in Africa Heating affects babies and children especially in Africa
Studies conducted on mice show that if this protein is blocked, the immune system’s time to remove malaria from the body is shortened, as a result of which the disease is milder and, most importantly, an immune response to future infections is formed. The Bucala vaccine candidate is currently being tested with the collaboration of scientists from the Jenner Vaccine Institute at the University of Oxford. If the results are positive, it is expected that trials on humans will begin in 2022.
Professor said, “Parasitic diseases have been affecting economic and social development in developing countries for many years. There is a great need for vaccines that will be effective against these diseases,” he said, adding:
“In addition to ensuring that our PMIF vaccine is successful, RNA is also much cheaper compared to the protein-based vaccines. This creates new opportunities for a malaria vaccine that did not exist before,” he said.
.
HIV
When we say “global pandemic”, we all think of Covid-19, but there is another global pandemic that is currently being experienced. “We are entering the fifth decade of the global HIV pandemic,” Duke University Human Vaccines Institute told The Guardian. To make matters worse, we don’t have an HIV vaccine yet.
The team is focusing on a special group of HIV patients on their way out to find a solution to this problem. In the bodies of these patients, which accounts for less than a third of cases, specialized antibodies are developing that are able to neutralize HIV many years after infection. But since the amount of virus in the body has increased significantly at that point, it is too late to clear the infection. “It’s like finding a fire extinguisher when the whole house is already on fire,” Prof. explained this situation with the words. But it is hoped that if a vaccine is developed that will trigger the formation of these antibodies, it will be possible to extinguish the fire before HIV settles in the body.
Prof. and his colleagues have created a very complex and detailed map of the immune system’s journey to produce these specialized antibodies. Now with their work within a consortium, “the arms race between pathogens and the immune system” rebuild to develop a series of four or five that are designed to very targeted mRNA vaccines are working.
“We think that the HIV vaccine is decisively the most complex among vaccines to date,” Prof. said. We don’t expect them to be 100 percent or 90 percent effective, like Covid vaccines. But even if we reach the level of 50-60 percent, we will consider ourselves successful,” he said, adding: “If it is 70% it would be incredible.”
.
.
.
.
Turkey's world-renowned organ transplant specialist. Dr. Demirbaş has 104 international publications and 102 national publications.
Physician's Resume:
Born on August 7, 1963 in Çorum, Prof. Dr. Alper Demirbaş has been continuing his work as the President of MedicalPark Antalya Hospital Organ Transplantation Center since 2008.
Prof. who performed the first tissue incompatible kidney transplant in Turkey, the first blood type incompatible kidney transplant, the first kidney-pancreas transplant program and the first cadaveric donor and live donor liver transplant in Antalya. Dr. As of August 2016, Alper Demirbaş has performed 4900 kidney transplants, 500 liver transplants and 95 pancreas transplants.
In addition to being the chairman of 6 national congresses, he has also been an invited speaker at 12 international and 65 national scientific congresses. Dr. Alper Demirbaş was married and the father of 1 girl and 1 boy.
Awards:
Eczacibasi Medical Award of 2002, Akdeniz University Service Award of 2005, Izder Medical Man of the Year Award of 2006, BÖHAK Medical Man of the Year Award of 2007, Sabah Mediterranean Newspaper Scientist of the Year Award of 2007, ANTIKAD Scientist of the Year Award of 2009, Social Ethics Association Award of 2010, Işık University Medical Man of the Year Award of 2015, VTV Antalya's Brand Value Award of 2015.
Certificates:
Doctor of Medicine Degree Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine Ankara, General Surgeon Ministry of Health Turkey EKFMG (0-477-343-8), University of Miami School of Medicine Member of Multiple Organ Transplant, ASTS Multiorgan Transplant Scholarship. Lecturer at Kyoto University. Lecturer at University of Essen, Research assistant at the University of Cambridge .
Professional Members:
American Society of Transplant Surgeons, American Transplantation Society Nominated, Middle East and Southern Africa Council Transplantation Society 2007, International Liver Transplantation Association, Turkish Transplantation Association, Turkish Society of Surgery, Turkish Hepatobiliary Surgery Association.
Disclaimer:
Our website contents consist of articles approved by our Web and Medical Editorial Board with the contributions of our physicians. Our contents are prepared only for informational purposes for public benefit. Be sure to consult your doctor for diagnosis and treatment.