(ORDO NEWS) — For the first time in the world, a team of researchers from Israel has developed an mRNA-based vaccine that is 100% effective against bacterial species that are deadly to humans.
mRNA vaccines were developed to protect against viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, and it seemed that such vaccines could not be created against bacteria.
But it succeeded. mRNA vaccines can also protect humans against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
One advantage of mRNA vaccines is that they can be developed very quickly.
Lead author Edo Kon explains: “The great advantage of mRNA vaccines, in addition to their effectiveness, is that they can be developed very quickly: from the publication of the genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus to the start of the first clinical trials, it took only 63 days. However, until now, scientists believed that it was impossible to create mRNA vaccines against bacteria.”
A virus needs a host cell to reproduce.
By introducing its own mRNA molecule into a human cell, the virus uses the cell as a factory for its own reproduction. In mRNA vaccines, the mRNA of the virus is synthesized in the laboratory.
It is packaged in a lipid shell resembling the membrane of human cells. When the vaccine is injected into the body, the lipids stick to the cells and the cells begin to produce viral proteins.
The immune system recognizes these proteins and learns to defend our body when exposed to a real virus.
Bacteria vaccine
Cohn says: “Because viruses make their proteins inside our cells, the proteins translated from the viral genetic sequence are similar to the proteins translated from laboratory-synthesized mRNA.
Bacteria are a different story: they don’t need our cells to make their own proteins.
But the proteins produced by bacteria are very different from the proteins produced by human cells, even though they are based on the same genetic sequence.
Therefore, the immune system cannot learn to recognize the bacteria and fight it.”
But scientists, despite all the difficulties, still achieved that human cells produce proteins indistinguishable from bacteria. And the immune response was received.
New line of defense
Study co-author Professor Pier says: “There are many pathogenic bacteria against which we do not have vaccines.
Moreover, due to the overuse of antibiotics over the past few decades, many bacteria have developed resistance to them, reducing the effectiveness of these important drugs.
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are already a real threat to human health around the world, and the development of a new type of vaccine could provide the answer to this global problem.”
In their study, the scientists tested the mRNA vaccine on animals infected with the plague bacterium. Within a week, all unvaccinated animals died, while the vaccinated animals remained alive and well.
One dose of the vaccine provides complete protection two weeks after it is given. This could protect against future outbreaks of rapidly spreading bacterial epidemics, scientists say.
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