The Future of mRNA Vaccines
Bouvé/ChE University Distinguished Professor Mansoor Amiji, discusses the future of creating mRNA vaccines and the technology behind developing these vaccines.
This article originally appeared on Northeastern Global News. It was published by Cynthia McCormick Hibbert. Main photo: Mansoor Amiji, university distinguished professor of pharmaceutical sciences. Photo: Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University.
What are mRNA vaccines? What is a universal vaccine — and how close are we to developing one?
Shortly after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced plans to halt $500 million in funding to develop vaccines using mRNA technology, he said in a press conference that he favors the development of a universal vaccine that mimics “natural immunity.”
What is the mRNA technology that led to rapid development of a vaccine against COVID-19, and how does it differ from other vaccines, such as whole virus vaccines championed by Kennedy?
And how close are we to developing a universal vaccine for COVID and the flu — and how would it work?
Northeastern Global News talked to Mansoor Amiji, university distinguished professor of pharmaceutical sciences and chemical engineering, and Brandon Dionne, associate clinical professor of pharmacy and health systems sciences, to find out.
“The basic premise of a vaccine is that you are using your body’s immune system to either protect against disease or to treat diseases,” Amiji says.
“What you’re doing with vaccines is you are priming your own body’s immune system,” he says.
The mRNA technology platform
“MRNA stands for messenger RNA,” Dionne says. “It’s like the genetic code or material that tells our body or any living organism how to make something.”
“In the case of the mRNA vaccines, it is messenger RNA that tells our cells how to produce whatever the antigen is that we’re trying to develop an antibody response to,” he says.
“With the COVID vaccines, that would be the spike protein from SARS CoV2,” Dionne says.
With mRNA influenza vaccines currently under development by pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Pfizer, it would most likely be the hemagglutinin molecule, another surface protein, he adds.
“The advantage of mRNA is that it’s very easy to change the specific mRNA sequencing to account for changes in the spike proteins or the hemagglutinin proteins that we see from season to season in different variations of the viruses,” Dionne says.
Amiji says he likes to compare mRNA platform technology to developing a recipe for cookies.
“The batter could be the same but we could change the ingredients and adapt it to our taste,” be it for chocolate chips or nuts, he says.
“With mRNA platform technology, you develop this core recipe and then you can make slight modifications after that relatively quickly,” Amiji says.
Read full story at Northeastern Global News