It might be useful to draw up the happy pathway to developing mRNA vaccines against spike proteins, and examining all the issues along the way.
My (very limited). understanding:
Coronaviruses use spike proteins to enter target cells
The immune system can
learn to recognise these proteins as foreign, then
generate a response when it encounters them
mRNA vaccines can
cause host tissue to display identified spike proteins
initiate the same immune response mechanism above
Mutations to spike proteins can
occasionally increase/not-decrease virus fitness (transmissibility etc.)
evade existing immune responses as they are no longer recognised
So, what are the issues that prevent
strain with distinct spike proteins identified
mRNA vaccine altered to display new spike proteins and initiate immune recognition
Is it
identifying the new spike proteins
replicating them via mRNA with enough fidelity
getting the host cells to display them
getting the host immune system to identify them as foreign
getting the host immune system to mount a sufficient response
preventing false positives from arising, with the immune system targeting incorrect entities
Or other things?
On the face of it, it seems almost like a trivial problem… but this is biology, so of course it isn’t.
It might be useful to draw up the happy pathway to developing mRNA vaccines against spike proteins, and examining all the issues along the way.
My (very limited). understanding:
Coronaviruses use spike proteins to enter target cells
The immune system can
learn to recognise these proteins as foreign, then
generate a response when it encounters them
mRNA vaccines can
cause host tissue to display identified spike proteins
initiate the same immune response mechanism above
Mutations to spike proteins can
occasionally increase/not-decrease virus fitness (transmissibility etc.)
evade existing immune responses as they are no longer recognised
So, what are the issues that prevent
strain with distinct spike proteins identified
mRNA vaccine altered to display new spike proteins and initiate immune recognition
Is it
identifying the new spike proteins
replicating them via mRNA with enough fidelity
getting the host cells to display them
getting the host immune system to identify them as foreign
getting the host immune system to mount a sufficient response
preventing false positives from arising, with the immune system targeting incorrect entities
Or other things?
On the face of it, it seems almost like a trivial problem… but this is biology, so of course it isn’t.