COVID-19: Is mRNA Vaccine a "transgenic vaccine"?

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COVID-19: Is mRNA Vaccine a “transgenic vaccine”?

COVID-19: Is mRNA Vaccine a “transgenic vaccine”?Is it safe at all?

Many people recently asked: As a new vaccine technology, mRNA vaccine. Whether there will be potential adverse reactions and side effects.

Some people even transferred some articles endorsed by “Academician X”, but gave a bunch of sensational “potential side effects” that the author himself “feeled” and “thought”; especially the panic about “genetically modified”.

So take this to clarify.

Moderna and Pfizer’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have released a lot of data. At present, it seems that the main adverse reactions of mRNA vaccines are: fatigue (3.8-9.7%), headache (2-4.5%) and fever (about 2%), etc. Wait.

Although if hundreds of millions of people are vaccinated, a large number of vaccinators may experience these adverse reactions, but these are common adverse reactions of vaccination. These adverse reactions are not caused by mRNA, but by lipid-mass nanoparticles that encapsulate mRNA.

As for the long-term side effects caused by mRNA that many people worry about.

Since mRNA is directly translated into protein in the cytoplasm, it will not enter the nucleus, integrate into the host genome, and will not change the genetic characteristics of the host.

mRNA just uses the protein expression tool (ribosome) in the host cytoplasm to translate the viral protein, and then let the host immune cells recognize it. Among them, the viral antigens expressed by muscle cells can be directly recognized by B cells; the viral proteins expressed by DC cells after uptake of mRNA can be presented to CD4 and CD8 T cells through antigen presentation. Tfh in the former further helps B cells to secrete antibodies.

Therefore, mRNA vaccine technology is not the so-called “transgenic” or “gene recombination”, because it does not involve editing or modifying human genes.
The protein expressed by mRNA is transient and transient, so priming-boost vaccination is needed to enhance host cells to express these viral proteins and promote the immune system to recognize these viral proteins.

In the process of receiving inquiries from friends, a particularly interesting phenomenon was discovered:

The more you don’t understand biomedicine,
The more people have more doubts and fears about mRNA vaccines.
This is obviously not wrong, but a normal state of mind; it is an instinctive reaction to the unknown in the process of human evolution.

Transparency and openness are not only to eliminate rumors, but also to eliminate panic.
In order to facilitate understanding, we directly use the legend to show.

The mechanism of action of Moderna’s vaccine:

(Moderna company’s mRNA vaccine model diagram)