New Delhi: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the year 2023 has been bestowed upon the distinguished scientists, Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman. Their groundbreaking discoveries have paved the way for the development of mRNA vaccines against the formidable Covid-19 virus.

As per the official Nobel Prize website, the laureates have played an instrumental role in accelerating vaccine development during one of the gravest health crises of our times. Their pioneering research fundamentally reshaped our comprehension of how mRNA interfaces with our immune system. The announcement of the Nobel Prize in 2023 has triggered a surge of curiosity regarding the identities of Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman, as well as their contributions to the creation of Covid vaccines.

Katalin Kariko, a professor at Sagan's University in Hungary and an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, partnered with Drew Weissman in conducting their groundbreaking study at the University of Pennsylvania.

The inaugural administration of a novel category of vaccines known as mRNA vaccines received authorization in the United States for the prevention of Covid-19. Over the past year, the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines have demonstrated remarkable safety and efficacy.

Dr. Ishwar Gilada, an Infectious Diseases Consultant and the Secretary-General of the Organized Medicine Academic Guild-OMAG, explained to News9, "The mRNA technology had been in existence since the 1980s, initially developed for HIV vaccines, but none had achieved success. During the Covid-19 pandemic, this pre-existing platform was leveraged to create mRNA vaccines. Essentially, these vaccines convey instructions to the immune system via messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), rather than introducing an inactivated virus into the body to stimulate an immune response."

How Did Kariko and Weissman Develop the Vaccine?

According to Kariko and Weissman, the challenge with genetically modified mRNA lies in the body's dendritic cells, which are crucial for immune surveillance and activating vaccine-induced immune responses. These cells recognize such mRNA as foreign, prompting the release of inflammatory signaling molecules.

Kariko and Weissman recognized that in vitro-transcribed mRNA typically undergoes chemical modifications, a feature absent in mammalian cell RNA. They questioned whether this absence of altered bases in in vitro-transcribed RNA contributed to the adverse inflammatory response. To investigate this, scientists created numerous mRNA variations, each with distinct chemical modifications in its bases, and exposed them to dendritic cells. The results were astounding: the addition of base modifications to mRNA almost entirely eliminated the inflammatory response, as reported by the Nobel Prize website.

What Are mRNA Vaccines?
An mRNA vaccine, a biological agent administered through a series of injections, is designed to shield individuals from developing specific diseases. Two of the Covid-19 vaccines currently in use, developed by Pfizer and Moderna, fall into the category of mRNA vaccines, according to a report from the Cleveland Clinic.

How Do mRNA Vaccines Function?
All vaccines function by enhancing the immune system's ability to defend against pathogens. Most vaccines introduce a small amount of a weakened or "inactivated" virus, prompting the body to produce antibodies to combat the disease. These antibodies serve as a defense if the individual is exposed to the pathogen in the future.

In contrast, mRNA vaccines stimulate the immune system differently than traditional vaccines. mRNA vaccines do not contain a virus that causes disease. Instead, they contain "messenger molecules" (mRNA) that provide the body with instructions, akin to a unique recipe. These instructions guide cells on how to produce a segment of a virus's protein, such as that of the Covid-19 virus.

Distinguishing mRNA Vaccines from Traditional Vaccines
Dr. Gilada clarified, "In routine vaccines, either a deactivated virus or a live attenuated virus is injected into the human body, prompting the production of antibodies, which remain prepared for any future virus attacks. However, the development of such vaccines on a large scale is time-consuming due to the need for viral cultures, which take considerable time to develop. mRNA vaccines, on the other hand, are advantageous because they require only messenger RNA--a small portion of the protein--instead of the entire virus to be injected into the body's messenger ribonucleic acid, activating our immune cells and generating antibodies."