Coronavirus Explained: What Is mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine Technology?

What Are mRNA Vaccines And How Do These Work?

To trigger an immune response, many vaccines put a weakened or inactivated virus into our bodies but mRNA vaccines do not work like that. Instead, mRNA vaccines use specific parts of the infectious agent like its protein, sugar, or coating.

mRNA or messenger-RNA vaccine gives a message to our cells to make a protein or even just a piece of a protein which are like those of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The protein then triggers an immune response inside our bodies. That immune response, which produces antibodies, is what protects us from getting infected if the real virus enters our bodies.

These vaccines are manufactured in a completely synthetic manner.

How Safe And Efficacious Are mRNA Vaccines?

How Are Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield And Bharat Biotech's Covaxin Different From mRNA Vaccines?

The Coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca is called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 or AZD1222 or Covishield in India. The ChAdOx1 vaccine uses a chimpanzee adenovirus. This is a harmless, weakened adenovirus that usually causes the common cold in chimpanzees. It is altered to use the blueprint of COVID-19 and because it looks like Coronavirus, the body's immune system then begins to produce immune response. On the other hand, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin is an inactivated vaccine. As part of the process, disease carrying virus, in the case of COVID-19 it is SARS-CoV-2, is inactivated or killed and then injected.

How Many Shots Of mRNA Vaccines Are Required?

What Are The Pros Of mRNA Vaccines?

What Are The Cons Of mRNA Vaccines?

Dr Harsh Mahajan said that currently, these vaccines are expensive. Secondly, they need to be stored at an extremely cold temperature like Pfizer's vaccine requires ultra-cold chain and needs to be preserved at -70 degrees Celsius. Similarly, Moderna's vaccine needs to be frozen between -25�C to -15�C temperature.

Do We Have mRNA Vaccines For Any Other Disease?

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the mRNA vaccine approach is a new way of developing vaccines. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, none had yet been through the full approvals process for use in humans, though some DNA vaccines, including for particular cancers, were undergoing human trials, reads the WHO's explainer on vaccine development and distribution.