Overview of mRNA technology and why it is important to Gays.
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Overview of mRNA technology and why it is important to Gays.
Why this post?
The current best candidate for an HIV vaccine is a mRNA vaccine and even if the first mRNA HIV vaccines do fail, the developing technology of mRNA, with self-replicating mRNA and other new developments will continue to be one of the strongest possibilities for an HIV vaccine.
Further there is work on mRNA vaccines for Herpes, mpox, CMV and other STDS.
This work is how CMV is sexually transmitted by Gay men.
https://academic.oup.com/jid/article-abstract/143/2/188/815104?redirectedFrom=fulltext
There is not only the possibility for vaccines where we didn’t have a vaccine before, but the possibility of more effective vaccines. The Moderna covid vaccine was over 90% effective.
There is very likely a high cross-correlation between anti-mRNA sentiment, and being a homophobe. Not every anti-vaxxer is a homophobe and not every homophobe is an anti-vaxxer, but there is a higher probability that an anti-vaxxer. As the mRNA pipeline produces more and more highly effective vaccines and homophobes refuse them, we will have a strategic advantage. We live, homophobes get sick and maybe die.
The success of mRNA vaccines are an important critical issue for Gays.
This Moderna pipeline shows the vaccines they are working on. Notice that one of the vaccines is for HIV, but as will be reported, this effort seems to be stallout for almost a year now.
https://www.modernatx.com/en-US/research/product-pipeline
He is working on HIV vaccines for a long time. Discusses the initial progressof HiV mRNA work.
What is mRNA?
mRNA is an abbreviation for messenger ribonucleic acid.
https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Messenger-RNA-mRNA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messenger_RNA
· Basically the DNA contains a linear code for a linear sequence of amino acids which when produced will make a protein.
The code is transcribed to tRNA (tranfer RNA).
Then certain segments are cut out of the tRNA and it becomes mRNA.
The mRNA is then read and the amino acid sequence it codes for is created.
The amino acid sequence folds into the final protein shape.
This is how all the proteins in your body are made.
When they inject you with mRNA, the cells pick it up and start making the amino acid sequence it codes for and the amino acid sequence which is produced becomes the protein by self-folding into the final protein shape.
Antigen is a term for the foreign substance the immune system reacts to. The proteins that the mRNA virus is creating is the antigen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigen
The body’s immune system recognizes the synthesized proteins are being foreign (antigens) and makes anti-bodies for them and programs T-cells to be on the lookout for these foreign proteins.
Why are mRNA vaccines important for Gays.
mRNA vaccines are basically digital vaccines. You can precisely control what proteins will be synthesized. There are some YouTube video at the end of this section.
Science Translational Medicine, Dec. 15, 2021, “Vaccines 2020: The era of the digital vaccine is here.”
Vaccination in the modern era began when Edward Jenner (2) made the astute observation that inoculating people with cowpox, a nonvirulent form of the smallpox virus isolated from cows, could educate the immune system to prevent smallpox disease. The new procedure was named “vaccination,” as the word cow is “vacca” in Latin.
The article has a history of vaccination going back to ancient China and the Ottoman empire.
The article explains that with the genetic engineering revolution in the 1980, non-pathogens, like yeast could make the antigens to make a vaccine.
However the discover could be long in terms discovery and set up of the manufacturing process. It could take in some cases 10 to 15 years.
And:
Traditionally, making vaccines involved growing bacteria, viruses, or parasites and using them to produce live attenuated, killed, or subunit vaccines, so-called analog vaccines. Digital vaccines are not based on any component derived from the live pathogen. Instead, they are based on genetic information downloaded from the internet with synthesis of the gene or RNA that then delivers the genetic code to host cells. Host cells then synthesize the antigen that activates the host immune response. [Boldface added.]
And:
Digital vaccines have not only brought new vaccines to people very quickly but also have launched a revolution in vaccine manufacturing. So far, vaccines have been classified by regulators as “biologics,” and each vaccine requires a dedicated manufacturing plant, which can take 3 to 5 years to build and validate, requiring hundreds of millions of dollars of investment. Vaccines comprising multiple components such as that for meningococcus B may require more than one manufacturing plant. By contrast, the manufacture of RNA vaccines requires the same process for every vaccine.
The potential of this technology is awe inspiring. There is the potential to have vaccines for every STD that exists and might exist in the future.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.abm3249
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRNA_vaccine
https://www.iavi.org/video/how-do-mrna-vaccines-work/
This video addresses some of the misconceptions about mRNA vaccines.
Self-replicating mRNA vaccines.
Science, Jan. 25, 2025, “The First Self-Amplifying mRNA Vaccine.”
A self-amplifying mRNA shot, as the name implies, contains the equipment needed to make more of itself once it enters cells.
And:
Having an mRNA that can make more copies of itself means that (first off) you probably don't have to inject very much. … It also means that even with a small initial injection that you might well expect to get a larger and more thorough exposure to your desired antigen protein than you could feasibly inject in a standard all-at-once dose.
The article then goes on to describe a self-replicating vaccine being developed in Japan.
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/first-self-amplifying-mrna-vaccine
Nature, Feb. 22, 2022, “Next generation self-replicating RNA vectors for vaccines and immunotherapies.”
This is an extremely technical article. However, there are some key points we can get from it. From the Introduction:
In addition, lack of a viral shell results in no/lower anti-vector immunity allowing repeated dosing and the ability to encode multiple larger genes of interest, normally limited by the packaging capacity of the viral particle. Furthermore, another safety advantage of srRNA platforms is the reduced efficacious human dose. As srRNA amplify within the host cell, low doses still result in higher and more durable protein expression making them advantaged for biotherapeutics compared to mRNA [6]. Lastly, current clinical srRNA-based vaccines are advantaged compared to mRNA due to their ability to elicit robust cell-mediated immunity, exemplified by strong CD8+ and CD4+ T cell responses critical for efficacious oncology therapeutics.
It is safe, you can have a reduced dose, stronger immune response, and cellular immunity in addition to antibodies.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41417-022-00435-8
A less technical article from Forbes.
Circular mRNA Vaccines
Another important development. Circular mRNA is where the linear strand of mRNA has the head and tail bonded to be a ring.
Nature, Sept. 11, 2023, “Circular RNA vaccine in disease prevention and treatment.”
Unlike the linear mRNA vaccine which applications were limited by its instability, inefficiency, and innate immunogenicity, circRNA vaccine which incorporate internal ribosome entry sites (IRESs) and open reading frame (ORF) provides an improved approach to RNA-based vaccination with safety, stability, simplicity of manufacture, and scalability. However, circRNA vaccines are at an early stage, and their optimization, delivery and applications require further development and evaluation.
And:
Considering their unique high stability, low immunogenicity, protein/peptide-coding capacity and special closed-loop construction, circRNA vaccine, and circRNA-based therapeutic platforms may have superior application prospects in a broad range of diseases.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41392-023-01561-x
Another article.
J. Translational Internal Medicine, Dec. 20, 2023, “Circular RNA: A promising new star of vaccine.”
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10732498/
Same article at this website.
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.2478/jtim-2023-0122/html
Future mRNA technical developments will be added in here.
This post will be kept up to date.
Some other articles.
Pfizer, No date, “Harnessing the Potential of mRNA.”
https://www.pfizer.com/science/innovation/mrna-technology
Moderna, No date, “The power of mRNA.”
https://www.modernatx.com/en-US/power-of-mrna/modernas-mrna-platform
Summary
mRNA vaccine technology is an advancing technology with increasing abilities to prevent infections. It has an expanding tool box of abilities.
It is a promising technology to prevent any infection of concern to Gays as Gays.
Given the impact of HIV to the Gay community, mRNA vaccines and the technologies that support them should be a high priority on the Gay agenda.
#HIVVaxNow
