Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey brainstuffe Lauren Bogobam here. For decades, researchers have dreamed about harnessing the power of genetic technology to prevent or treat a range of diseases. A synthetic version of a molecule in the human body known as messenger ribonucleic acid or m RNA held that promise. Just how to make it work presented daunting challenges that much of the science community thought was a mountain too hide a climb, But a handful
of researchers didn't give up. They spent years trying to solve the mystery of m RNA. Then, just like a made for TV movie, but very much real, they cracked the code just in time to save the world from
the deadly novel coronavirus. M RNA vaccines work by delivering instructions to cells that empower those cells to produce antigens, which are molecules that prompt and i'm une system response in your body, which includes your immune system creating antibodies that can identify and fight an invader like the coronavirus. But let's unpack all of that to understand mr Anda vaccine technology and how it's being used to protect us
from COVID nineteen. We need to talk about proteins. Proteins are often referred to as the building blocks of life. They're posential for the structure, function, and regulation of the body's tissues and organs. Every cell in your body contains tens of thousands of distinct proteins, each of which is made up of several types of amino acids that attached to each other to create chains of varying lengths that fold into various shapes. Proteins shape has a great deal
to do with its function. Some proteins regulate specific processes within a cell, like growth, development, metabolism, and reproduction. Some proteins act as biological atalysts to help the body build muscle, destroy toxins, and break down food particles during digestion. Other proteins are antibodies that let the immune system fight infections and clear out harmful pathogens. The cells are assigned their amino acid sequences and thus told the function of their
proteins via the body's messenger RNA or mRNA. You can think of this process like a spy mission. mRNA hands the cell instructions to make a certain protein. Once the cell makes its protein, the cell destroys the instructions and
then goes to work manufacturing that specific protein. A few researchers began to wonder what if science could develop a synthetic mRNA with a specific coding sequence that could be delivered to the body and instruct cells to create any type of protein, growth agents to repair damaged tissues, enzymes to cure rear diseases, or antibodies to protect at infection. In n A group of University of Wisconsin researchers actually
succeeded in making synthetic mRNA and tested it in laboratory mice. Unfortunately, that synthetic mRNA was identified by the mice's immune systems as an invader and was destroyed before ever reaching the target cell to deliver the coded message. Many in the scientific world saw this as a fatal flaw and turned their attentions elsewhere, but two researchers at the University of Pennsylvania set out to find a way to make mRNA
more stable. In two thousand five, after a decade of painstaking research, they discovered that they could use tiny balls of fat called lipid nanoparticles or LPNs to protect the synthetic mRNA. This gave the fragile molecule stealth like qualities that enabled it to escape the immune systems radar. With
this tool in hand, more research followed. In twenty in the Cambridge, Massachusetts based pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Maderna Incorporated was founded to focus specifically on mr anda vaccine technologies. The name Maderna comes from combining the words modified and RNA. And Meanwhile, back in two thousand eight, German based bio n Tech short for Biopharmaceutical New Technologies, had been founded
to develop pharmaceutical cancer immunotherapy candidates using mRNA technology. In the company partnered with US based Visor Incorporated to develop mRNA based flu vaccines, and then the world was hit by a pandemic. Researchers everywhere began directing all their efforts toward developing a vaccine for the novel coronavirus. And all of this research that had come before is part of how mRNA vaccines got approved so fast. Let's talk about viruses.
Viruses cannot reproduce on their own. They need to infect a host cell in a creature's body to begin the process which can make the creature sick. A for an mRNA vaccine for COVID nineteen to work, researchers needed to know which protein the virus was using to attack host cells, and for that they needed to crack COVID nineteen's genetic code. This process was simplified because the virus that causes COVID nineteen was similar to two other coronaviruses that had previously
infected humans, mers and stars. By December thirty one, twenty nineteen, when China first reported pneumonia like infections from some kind of virus or group of similar viruses, Chinese researchers were already working to map the virus is genetic code. About two weeks later, on January twelve, they released the gene sequence data. This gave researchers everywhere the ammunition to start
on a vaccine. For the article, this episode is based on How Stuff Works Folk with Paul Geptford, m D, Professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and an expert in vaccine design. He said, we knew that the spike protein was the Achilles heel. M RNA vaccines are amenable to very rapid development. We got kind of lucky from that aspect. A week later, Maderna and
Fightser made their vaccines. The companies were then able to propel ahead of drug companies developing traditional vaccines and move quickly into animal testing, and shortly thereafter human trials began. Both the Maderna and Fightser bio n tech vaccines are performing surprisingly well, and studies have shown that a full double dose of Fiser's or Maderna's vaccine provides and protection against the original virus, respectively. Yet barely half of all
Americans are fully vaccinated. Getfort said. One of the reasons for vaccine hesitancy is that people have this misunderstanding that mrn A covid vaccines were developed so quickly and that in doing so we skipped safety evaluation, which is not
true at all. This vaccine has been tested on incredible numbers of people, and it actually underwent the normal safety testing of any products, and now that it's under emergency use authorization, we have millions more safety data, actually more than any other product that we've had for a vaccine. These mr ANDA vaccines work so well because they induce multiple arms of defense in the immune system, Giptford explained.
They induce the neutralization of antibodies, which I think of as spears because they can knock out the virus before you even get infected. They induce functional antibodies, which utilize cells to be more effective, and they induce T cell responses, both helper and killer cell responses, which are extremely important. T cells help prevent severe disease and death. Traditional evact scenes also create neutralizing antibodies and induce antibody responses, but
aren't as good inducing T cell responses. So what does the future hold for mRNA technology. This is likely just the beginning. Back in two, clinical trials were already underway to test mRNA vaccines against several infectious diseases, including HIV, influenza, zica, and rabies. Other research is testing whether m RNA technology
could prevent cancer from recurring. It turns out that mRNA vaccines can target almost any pathogen as long as you code for the right protein to stimulate the right immune response. That means scientists the diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, hepatitis B, and cystic fibrosis could all be prevented in the future with mRNA vaccines. Getfort said, these vaccines are remarkable even an older adults. They work really, really well, which is unusual for most any vaccine that we have, so that's
just remarkable. Today's episode is based on the article will m RNA technology transform medicine beyond COVID nineteen on how stuff Works dot Com, written by Jennifer Walker. Journey brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.