Fauci said of mRNA research.
How do you get mRNA into cells of the body.
Barnathan planned to insert mRNA into cells, inducing them to make new proteins.
In one of the first experiments, they hoped to use the strategy to instruct cells to make a protein called the urokinase receptor.
Their detector had found new proteins produced by cells that were never supposed to make them — suggesting that mRNA could be used to direct any cell to make any protein, at will.Perhaps they could even use the procedure to extend the life span of human cells.
His idea was to get cells in blood vessels to make nitric oxide, a substance that dilates blood vessels, but has a half-life of milliseconds.
Kariko tried their mRNA on isolated blood vessels used to study strokes.
Weissman happened by, and she struck up a conversation.
“I said, ‘I am an RNA scientist — I can make anything with mRNA,’†Dr.
Weissman told her he wanted to make a vaccine against H.I.V.
Kariko said.
Despite her bravado, her research on mRNA had stalled.She could make mRNA molecules that instructed cells in petri dishes to make the protein of her choice.
Weissman said.
Every cell in every person’s body makes mRNA, and the immune system turns a blind eye.
Weissman noticed their mRNA caused an immune overreaction.
But the control molecules, another form of RNA in the human body — so-called transfer RNA, or tRNA — did not.
As it turned out, naturally occurring human mRNA also contains the molecule.
Weissman, the molecule did the same — and also made the mRNA much more powerful, directing the synthesis of 10 times as much protein in each cell.
It meant that mRNA could be used to alter the functions of cells without prompting an immune system attack.
Weissman said.
The people who reviewed the grants said mRNA will not be a good therapeutic, so don’t bother.’â€.
When the research finally was published, in Immunity, it got little attention.
Weissman and Dr.
Kariko then showed they could induce an animal — a monkey — to make a protein they had selected.
In this case, they injected monkeys with mRNA for erythropoietin, a protein that stimulates the body to make red blood cells.
The scientists thought the same method could be used to prompt the body to make any protein drug, like insulin or other hormones or some of the new diabetes drugs.Crucially, mRNA also could be used to make vaccines unlike any seen before.
Instead of injecting a piece of a virus into the body, doctors could inject mRNA that would instruct cells to briefly make that part of the virus.Weissman said.
Soon clinical trials of an mRNA flu vaccine were underway, and there were efforts to build new vaccines against cytomegalovirus and the Zika virus, among others.Researchers had known for 20 years that the crucial feature of any coronavirus is the spike protein sitting on its surface, which allows the virus to inject itself into human cells.It was a fat target for an mRNA vaccine.
BioNTech designed its mRNA vaccine in hours; Moderna designed its in two days.
The idea for both vaccines was to introduce mRNA into the body that would briefly instruct human cells to produce the coronavirus’s spike protein.The immune system would see the protein, recognize it as alien, and learn to attack the coronavirus if it ever appeared in the body.
The vaccines, though, needed a lipid bubble to encase the mRNA and carry it to the cells that it would enter.8, the first results of the Pfizer-BioNTech study came in, showing that the mRNA vaccine offered powerful immunity to the new virus.
Weissman celebrated with his family, ordering takeout dinner from an Italian restaurant, “with wine,†he said.
Weissman said.
A senior administrator told the doctors and nurses rolling up their sleeves for shots that the scientists whose research made the vaccine possible were present, and they all clapped