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  Is this the beginning of an mRNA vaccine revolution? | Adam Finn

  

  theguardian.com

  No one knew whether mRNA technology would work against this virus – but it does. It’s an extraordinary moment for scienceCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe past few months have brought a number of scientific terms to public attention. We’ve had to digest R (a virus’s reproduction number) and PCR (the polymerase chain reaction method of testing). And now there’s mRNA. This last one has featured heavily in recent news reports because of the spectacular results of two new mRNA vaccines against coronavirus. It stands for “messenger ribonucleic acid”, a label familiar enough if you studied biology at O-level or GCSE, but otherwise hardly a household name. Even in the field of vaccine research, if you had said as recently as 10 years ago that you could protect people from infections by injecting them with mRNA, you would have provoked some puzzled looks.Essentially, mRNA is a molecule used by living cells to turn the gene sequences in DNA into the proteins that are the building blocks of all their fundamental structures. A segment of DNA gets copied (“transcribed”) into a piece of mRNA, which in turn gets “read” by the cell’s tools for synthesising proteins. In the case of an mRNA vaccine, the virus’s mRNA is injected into the muscle, and our own cells then read it and synthesise the viral protein. The immune system reacts to these proteins – which can’t by themselves cause disease – just as if they’d been carried in on the whole virus. This generates a protective response that, we hope, lasts for some time. It’s so beautifully simple it almost seems like science fiction. But last week we learned that it was true. Continue reading...

  coronavirus health infectious diseases medical research science vaccines and immunisation

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  Covid vaccines: what are the implications of new variants of virus?

  

  theguardian.com

  UK, South Africa and Brazil variants indicate changes may be neededCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our...

  UK, South Africa and Brazil variants indicate changes may be neededCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageIn common with others, the virus that causes Covid-19 mutates as it spreads. Most mutations have little or no effect, but some can change the behaviour of the virus. Mutations in a variant found in the UK in September has helped the virus spread more easily and...

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  BioNTech criticises EU failure to order enough Covid vaccine

  

  theguardian.com

  Firm races to fill potential gap left by bloc’s gamble on several vaccines being approvedCoronavirus –...

  Firm races to fill potential gap left by bloc’s gamble on several vaccines being approvedCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageBioNtech has criticised the EU’s failure to order more doses of its coronavirus vaccine, saying it is now racing with its US partner, Pfizer, to boost production amid fears of a European “gap” left by the lack of other approved vaccines.The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine...

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  Covid vaccine 'highly likely' to work on UK variant, BioNTech says

  

  theguardian.com

  Chief executive, Uğur Şahin, says team will know within two weeks if vaccine works or needs...

  Chief executive, Uğur Şahin, says team will know within two weeks if vaccine works or needs adaptionCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe chief executive of the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech has said he is confident its coronavirus vaccine works against the new UK variant, but that further studies are need to be certain.Uğur Şahin told a press conference that his team had...

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