A Revolutionary Vaccine
- Sufian Alzubi
- Feb 18, 2021
- 3 min read
Since their introduction in 1798, vaccines have aided humanity in eradicating diseases such as smallpox and rinderpest, and decreasing the overall spread of other diseases (polio, measles and chickenpox, to name a few) tremendously. And with a new type of vaccine on the rise, I’d like to share how it works in this article.
Before I begin, I would like to point out that vaccines are usually only made for diseases which are caused by viruses, so diseases caused by bacteria (or other pathogens) such as tuberculosis, malaria and cholera sadly don’t have successful vaccines. To put it simply, this is due to the other pathogens being too complex in comparison with viruses. Which means finding other solutions to these illnesses (such as antibiotics) is both faster and more affordable.
Secondly, I’d like to quickly outline how traditional vaccines work; they expose the body to weakened (or dead) versions of the virus, in hopes of exposing the body’s immune system to the unique protein markers on the virus, called “Antigens”. Antigens are what the body recognizes to initiate a response against the infection, producing “antibodies”, which bind to the virus and immobilize it, allowing the rest of the immune system to destroy it. This then allows the immune system to store information about the virus in special cells called memory B cells and memory T cells. In the case that the virus ever actually infects the person again, the response is initiated, and antibodies are produced very quickly and no symptoms are seen on the person, this is called “Active Immunity”. These weakened pathogens along with other constituents (which increase the chance for the vaccine to take effect) is what makes the vaccine we know today.
However, traditional vaccines aren’t guaranteed to work on everybody, as sometimes, the amount of the pathogen in the vaccine isn’t enough to trigger an immune response in the receiver, and sometimes it’s enough to actually get the person sick! This is what leads to things like “95%” immunity vaccines. Because of this, along with the volatility, side effects, and unknowns regarding the COVID-19 virus, the production of a successful traditional vaccine for it has proven quite difficult. This is where an old, long circling idea comes in; what if, rather than expose the body to the disease, we give the body the specific protein sequence it requires to make the unique antigens to trigger an immune response? And that’s precisely what the mRNA vaccine plans to do.
To elaborate, the cells in your body take instructions from your DNA in the form of mRNA (or messenger RNA) which codes for a specific protein and tells the body to make this protein. Synthetically-made mRNA can code for the antigens (the protein markers on the surface of pathogens) of a disease and have the body produce them without the body ever coming in contact with the disease. This gives the person immunity without a risk of infection
To conclude, traditional viruses expose the body to a weak virus, to emulate a real sickness and trigger an immune response, while mRNA vaccines have the body produce the specific virus markers, which triggers the immune response without a risk of sickness. Hopefully, with their advent, this current pandemic will come to a halt soon and COVID-19 will be another disease which humanity eradicated thanks to vaccines. Thanks for reading, and stay safe everyone.
Cambridge International AS and A Level Biology Coursebook: Fourth version (chapters 10 and 11)
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