Many people are not familiar with the history of mRNA vaccines. As far back as 1990, University of Wisconsin researchers found that they could effectively use mRNA vaccines in mice! Since then, vaccines have come a long way!
Some people think that mRNA vaccines
are a new technology. There is some truth to that, but there is a lot more to
the story.
mRNA vaccines have been under
development for many decades. So how exactly did mRNA vaccine research start,
and how did it get to the state it has achieved today?
Read on to learn all about the most
important things to understand about the history of mRNA vaccine technology!
The
Discovery of mRNA Systems
Just a few years ago, most people
were not paying very much attention to mRNA vaccines. These days, people are
debating over who deserves the most credit for mRNA technology. The truth, of
course, is that many people played a role in bringing this important technology
to development.
Some modern contributors are
receiving a lot of attention for helping develop covid vaccines using mRNA
technology. But the story of mRNA systems starts a lot longer.
We owe a significant debt of
gratitude to early scientists who helped understand mRNA systems. They saw
their potential use for vaccines.
Way back in 1978, scientists had
already discovered a way to transport mRNA structures into individual cells.
They found that they could use a fatty membrane structure to persuade both
human and mice cells to allow the mRNA to enter.
These early discoveries proved that
mRNA technology had the potential to be used for vaccines someday. Although
these researchers in 1978 had an important role to play, they were inspired by
the more preliminary work done by even earlier scientists.
Animal
Trials
In 1984, scientists discovered new
techniques for creating functional mRNA in the laboratory. They then discovered
that they could inject that mRNA into the eggs of frogs. The results of those
are the experiments found that the MRNA inserted into frog eggs functioned just
like mRNA created by the frog's own cells.
However, back then, people still
had not figured out a reliable way for helping mRNA to maintain
itself stably. That meant that many people did not consider it a viable option
for vaccines.
However, scientists later injected
mRNA into live mice. They discovered that they could convince the cells of mice
to generate HIV proteins.
And once those proteins were
present in the body of the mouse, it was discovered that the mouse developed
natural protection against HIV. This was one of the early indicators that mRNA
technology would be viable for vaccination.
mRNA Vaccine
Trials in 2010
Of course, before a medical
treatment becomes approved for use in humans, it has to be tested. And
those tests must be on humans, not just on human cells or on animals.
It was around 2010 when scientists
started testing mRNA vaccine prototypes on human subjects. One of the early
problems with these vaccines was that the RNA in them did not stay
very stable for very long. This is one of the reasons that even modern covid
mRNA vaccines have to be stored at very low temperatures.
These frigid temperatures help the
RNA to maintain its structure long enough to be injected into the body.
Also around 2010, mRNA vaccines
showed some promise for helping human subjects to develop resistance to the
development of cancer. Some people think that human trials of mRNA vaccines
only started sometime after the coronavirus pandemic began.
The truth is, experiments on human
subjects for mRNA cancer vaccines were going on way back in 2007 and proceeding
into the 2010s.
In 2017, Moderna was developing an
influenza virus vaccine. They tested it on mice, ferrets, and primates. They
also tested it on humans.
The
Modern State of mRNA Vaccines
All of this early research helped
prepare for the time when society would desperately need mRNA vaccine
technology. When the coronavirus pandemic started, many mRNA scientists
realized something. They recognized that the work they had been doing testing
mRNA vaccines on humans might be applicable to the new covid-19 Coronavirus.
Shortly after the pandemic started,
companies like Pfizer and Moderna started to investigate mRNA vaccines
that targeted the covid-19 Coronavirus. After they developed these vaccines,
they tested them on human volunteers and discovered that they were highly
effective.
Since then, these vaccines have been
given to many tens of millions of people all around the world. Many thousands
of doctors and scientists have administered these vaccines and observed the
people who received them.
Many people have been protected from
covid-19 infections because of the efficacy of these vaccines.
So what does the future of mRNA
vaccines look like? Scientists have seen mRNA vaccines prove themselves on the
covid-19 coronavirus. Now, many scientists are considering other diseases that
they might be able to help manage. The day may come when we have mRNA vaccines
for malaria and even cancer.
The more that you learn about the
adaptive immune system and therapeutics and vaccines to help prevent disease,
the more you might be interested in more of the history of vaccine
optimization.
Kenneth Chien, Moderna Co-founder, has an important role in mRNA history. He helped speedily
develop mRNA vaccines to help manage the coronavirus pandemic!
Understand
the History of mRNA Vaccines
We hope learning about the history
of mRNA vaccines has been helpful for you. Because mRNA vaccines only came into
the spotlight in the past few years, most people do not know very much about
their longer history. However, as time goes on, the important role of mRNA
vaccines will likely find its way into the history books!
To learn more about the latest
information and medicine, technology, and more, check out our other articles!
