Instructions to manufacture the key protein to awaken the immune response against covid

Zaragoza researcher Jesús Gonzalo Asensio, from the Mycobacterial Genetics group at the University of Zaragoza, clarifies that "we have not started from scratch: this technology has been used as a strategy against cancer and there is much prior evidence in experimental animals." "Citizens must know - he explains - that the vaccine consists of the messenger RNA that carries the genetic instructions to produce the S protein of SARS-CoV-2, and this RNA is wrapped in a drop of lipids." The S protein, a relatively large protein abundant on the surface of the virus, is the key to entry into human cells. "When the messenger RNA of the S protein enters the cells," he continues, "our own cellular machinery produces the S protein of the virus, and our immune system recognizes it as a foreign protein and makes antibodies and T lymphocytes against it."

mRNA is "a molecule that exists naturally in our cells and is eliminated quickly, so once vaccinated, the mRNA does not remain in our body forever or integrate into our chromosomes. In fact, it is more likely that our immune system triggers an adverse reaction to any of the lipids surrounding the mRNA rather than to the RNA molecule itself.

Luís Montoliu, CSIC researcher at the National Center for Biotechnology, highlights that this strategy "is revolutionary because it integrates a lot of science and basic research that now, adding everything we have learned in the last 30 years, allows us to develop these vaccines safely and effectively." of RNA". But it is equally revolutionary because "it is extraordinarily versatile, quick and simple to apply (one of the reasons why the first approved vaccines have been RNA ones), once the platform for its development has been prepared. This should allow develop other vaccines against other viruses (or against other diseases, such as cancer)."

Administering RNA "involves administering the instructions to manufacture the protein that is encoded, and this allows guaranteeing a few production cycles of the same, until the RNA disappears and degrades. It is therefore a transitory vaccine, very clean, that does not It interacts with the cell irreversibly and does not leave a trace and, of course, it does not integrate into the cellular DNA – Montoliu also emphasizes – it only allows the protein that must elicit the immune response not directly (like other strategies, which administer the protein). already synthesized), but through the RNA that encodes it".