NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE 2023:  mRNA  VACCINES FOR COVID-19

It was jointly awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.

 

COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are built on mRNA research.

 

About mRNA COVID-19 vaccines discovery

 

Earlier, introduction of mRNA gave rise to unwanted inflammatory reactions.

So, they produced different variants of mRNA, each with unique chemical alterations in their

bases (A, U, G, and C), which they delivered to dendritic cells.

Dendritic cells have important functions in immune surveillance and activation of vaccine-induced immune response.

Inflammatory response was almost abolished when base modifications were included in

mRNA.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) is a molecule that carries instructions to a cell for making proteins.

Once the protein is synthesised, immune system escalates a response against it. In Covid-19 vaccines, protein being synthesised is Sars-CoV-2s spike.

 

Advantages of mRNA vaccine

 

Non-infectious and cannot integrate with host DNA.

mRNA can be quickly designed and scaled up.

 Generate stronger immune response as compared to traditional vaccines.

 

ABOUT NOBEL PRIZE

Prizes were established by will of Alfred Nobel and first handed out in 1901. Each prize is worth 10 million kronor.

Nobel Prize is an international award administered by Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. Medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, economics, and peace are the 6 streams for this prize.

Economics award was not created by Nobel, but by Sweden’s central bank in 1968.

 

 

 

https://todaynewslife.com/nobel-prize-2023-in-physics-methods-that-generate-attosecond-pulses-of-light/