WEBVTT - How Were COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines Released So Quickly?

0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:07.240
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey brainstuffe

0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:11.760
<v Speaker 1>Lauren Bogobam here. For decades, researchers have dreamed about harnessing

0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:15.400
<v Speaker 1>the power of genetic technology to prevent or treat a

0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:18.880
<v Speaker 1>range of diseases. A synthetic version of a molecule in

0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:23.160
<v Speaker 1>the human body known as messenger ribonucleic acid or m

0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:27.479
<v Speaker 1>RNA held that promise. Just how to make it work

0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:31.440
<v Speaker 1>presented daunting challenges that much of the science community thought

0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:34.640
<v Speaker 1>was a mountain too hide a climb, But a handful

0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:38.239
<v Speaker 1>of researchers didn't give up. They spent years trying to

0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:42.159
<v Speaker 1>solve the mystery of m RNA. Then, just like a

0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:45.320
<v Speaker 1>made for TV movie, but very much real, they cracked

0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:47.959
<v Speaker 1>the code just in time to save the world from

0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:53.920
<v Speaker 1>the deadly novel coronavirus. M RNA vaccines work by delivering

0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:57.680
<v Speaker 1>instructions to cells that empower those cells to produce antigens,

0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:01.000
<v Speaker 1>which are molecules that prompt and i'm une system response

0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:05.039
<v Speaker 1>in your body, which includes your immune system creating antibodies

0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:08.920
<v Speaker 1>that can identify and fight an invader like the coronavirus.

0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:14.320
<v Speaker 1>But let's unpack all of that to understand mr Anda

0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:17.640
<v Speaker 1>vaccine technology and how it's being used to protect us

0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:23.240
<v Speaker 1>from COVID nineteen. We need to talk about proteins. Proteins

0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:26.000
<v Speaker 1>are often referred to as the building blocks of life.

0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:30.120
<v Speaker 1>They're posential for the structure, function, and regulation of the

0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:34.120
<v Speaker 1>body's tissues and organs. Every cell in your body contains

0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.640
<v Speaker 1>tens of thousands of distinct proteins, each of which is

0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:40.759
<v Speaker 1>made up of several types of amino acids that attached

0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:43.760
<v Speaker 1>to each other to create chains of varying lengths that

0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:47.880
<v Speaker 1>fold into various shapes. Proteins shape has a great deal

0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:52.840
<v Speaker 1>to do with its function. Some proteins regulate specific processes

0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:57.880
<v Speaker 1>within a cell, like growth, development, metabolism, and reproduction. Some

0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:02.280
<v Speaker 1>proteins act as biological atalysts to help the body build muscle,

0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:06.920
<v Speaker 1>destroy toxins, and break down food particles during digestion. Other

0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:11.000
<v Speaker 1>proteins are antibodies that let the immune system fight infections

0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:15.600
<v Speaker 1>and clear out harmful pathogens. The cells are assigned their

0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:19.480
<v Speaker 1>amino acid sequences and thus told the function of their

0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:25.639
<v Speaker 1>proteins via the body's messenger RNA or mRNA. You can

0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:29.799
<v Speaker 1>think of this process like a spy mission. mRNA hands

0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.320
<v Speaker 1>the cell instructions to make a certain protein. Once the

0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.640
<v Speaker 1>cell makes its protein, the cell destroys the instructions and

0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:41.040
<v Speaker 1>then goes to work manufacturing that specific protein. A few

0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:44.600
<v Speaker 1>researchers began to wonder what if science could develop a

0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:48.560
<v Speaker 1>synthetic mRNA with a specific coding sequence that could be

0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:51.600
<v Speaker 1>delivered to the body and instruct cells to create any

0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:56.320
<v Speaker 1>type of protein, growth agents to repair damaged tissues, enzymes

0:02:56.360 --> 0:03:00.880
<v Speaker 1>to cure rear diseases, or antibodies to protect at infection.

0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:06.000
<v Speaker 1>In n A group of University of Wisconsin researchers actually

0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:12.320
<v Speaker 1>succeeded in making synthetic mRNA and tested it in laboratory mice. Unfortunately,

0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:16.280
<v Speaker 1>that synthetic mRNA was identified by the mice's immune systems

0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.400
<v Speaker 1>as an invader and was destroyed before ever reaching the

0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:23.080
<v Speaker 1>target cell to deliver the coded message. Many in the

0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:26.160
<v Speaker 1>scientific world saw this as a fatal flaw and turned

0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:30.200
<v Speaker 1>their attentions elsewhere, but two researchers at the University of

0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:33.280
<v Speaker 1>Pennsylvania set out to find a way to make mRNA

0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:37.760
<v Speaker 1>more stable. In two thousand five, after a decade of

0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:41.600
<v Speaker 1>painstaking research, they discovered that they could use tiny balls

0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:46.000
<v Speaker 1>of fat called lipid nanoparticles or LPNs to protect the

0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:51.520
<v Speaker 1>synthetic mRNA. This gave the fragile molecule stealth like qualities

0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:56.000
<v Speaker 1>that enabled it to escape the immune systems radar. With

0:03:56.080 --> 0:04:00.040
<v Speaker 1>this tool in hand, more research followed. In twenty in

0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:05.520
<v Speaker 1>the Cambridge, Massachusetts based pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Maderna Incorporated

0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:10.160
<v Speaker 1>was founded to focus specifically on mr anda vaccine technologies.

0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:15.240
<v Speaker 1>The name Maderna comes from combining the words modified and RNA.

0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:19.040
<v Speaker 1>And Meanwhile, back in two thousand eight, German based bio

0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:24.200
<v Speaker 1>n Tech short for Biopharmaceutical New Technologies, had been founded

0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:31.040
<v Speaker 1>to develop pharmaceutical cancer immunotherapy candidates using mRNA technology. In

0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:34.799
<v Speaker 1>the company partnered with US based Visor Incorporated to develop

0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:39.599
<v Speaker 1>mRNA based flu vaccines, and then the world was hit

0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:44.359
<v Speaker 1>by a pandemic. Researchers everywhere began directing all their efforts

0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:48.680
<v Speaker 1>toward developing a vaccine for the novel coronavirus. And all

0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:51.320
<v Speaker 1>of this research that had come before is part of

0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:56.760
<v Speaker 1>how mRNA vaccines got approved so fast. Let's talk about viruses.

0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:01.080
<v Speaker 1>Viruses cannot reproduce on their own. They need to infect

0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:03.520
<v Speaker 1>a host cell in a creature's body to begin the

0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:06.920
<v Speaker 1>process which can make the creature sick. A for an

0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:11.440
<v Speaker 1>mRNA vaccine for COVID nineteen to work, researchers needed to

0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:16.120
<v Speaker 1>know which protein the virus was using to attack host cells,

0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:20.599
<v Speaker 1>and for that they needed to crack COVID nineteen's genetic code.

0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:24.320
<v Speaker 1>This process was simplified because the virus that causes COVID

0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:28.400
<v Speaker 1>nineteen was similar to two other coronaviruses that had previously

0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:34.839
<v Speaker 1>infected humans, mers and stars. By December thirty one, twenty nineteen,

0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:38.880
<v Speaker 1>when China first reported pneumonia like infections from some kind

0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:42.760
<v Speaker 1>of virus or group of similar viruses, Chinese researchers were

0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:47.000
<v Speaker 1>already working to map the virus is genetic code. About

0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:51.080
<v Speaker 1>two weeks later, on January twelve, they released the gene

0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:55.760
<v Speaker 1>sequence data. This gave researchers everywhere the ammunition to start

0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:58.960
<v Speaker 1>on a vaccine. For the article, this episode is based

0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:01.440
<v Speaker 1>on How Stuff Works Folk with Paul Geptford, m D,

0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:05.200
<v Speaker 1>Professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham

0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:09.559
<v Speaker 1>and an expert in vaccine design. He said, we knew

0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:12.880
<v Speaker 1>that the spike protein was the Achilles heel. M RNA

0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:16.680
<v Speaker 1>vaccines are amenable to very rapid development. We got kind

0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:19.919
<v Speaker 1>of lucky from that aspect. A week later, Maderna and

0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:24.120
<v Speaker 1>Fightser made their vaccines. The companies were then able to

0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:28.360
<v Speaker 1>propel ahead of drug companies developing traditional vaccines and move

0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:32.880
<v Speaker 1>quickly into animal testing, and shortly thereafter human trials began.

0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:37.080
<v Speaker 1>Both the Maderna and Fightser bio n tech vaccines are

0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:41.080
<v Speaker 1>performing surprisingly well, and studies have shown that a full

0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:47.200
<v Speaker 1>double dose of Fiser's or Maderna's vaccine provides and protection

0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:51.000
<v Speaker 1>against the original virus, respectively. Yet barely half of all

0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:55.799
<v Speaker 1>Americans are fully vaccinated. Getfort said. One of the reasons

0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:59.400
<v Speaker 1>for vaccine hesitancy is that people have this misunderstanding that

0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:03.000
<v Speaker 1>mrn A covid vaccines were developed so quickly and that

0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:06.440
<v Speaker 1>in doing so we skipped safety evaluation, which is not

0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:10.160
<v Speaker 1>true at all. This vaccine has been tested on incredible

0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:13.760
<v Speaker 1>numbers of people, and it actually underwent the normal safety

0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:17.600
<v Speaker 1>testing of any products, and now that it's under emergency

0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:21.920
<v Speaker 1>use authorization, we have millions more safety data, actually more

0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:24.760
<v Speaker 1>than any other product that we've had for a vaccine.

0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:29.360
<v Speaker 1>These mr ANDA vaccines work so well because they induce

0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:33.680
<v Speaker 1>multiple arms of defense in the immune system, Giptford explained.

0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:37.640
<v Speaker 1>They induce the neutralization of antibodies, which I think of

0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:40.920
<v Speaker 1>as spears because they can knock out the virus before

0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:46.000
<v Speaker 1>you even get infected. They induce functional antibodies, which utilize

0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:50.640
<v Speaker 1>cells to be more effective, and they induce T cell responses,

0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:55.440
<v Speaker 1>both helper and killer cell responses, which are extremely important.

0:07:55.440 --> 0:08:00.000
<v Speaker 1>T cells help prevent severe disease and death. Traditional evact

0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:04.680
<v Speaker 1>scenes also create neutralizing antibodies and induce antibody responses, but

0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:09.680
<v Speaker 1>aren't as good inducing T cell responses. So what does

0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:13.920
<v Speaker 1>the future hold for mRNA technology. This is likely just

0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:18.760
<v Speaker 1>the beginning. Back in two, clinical trials were already underway

0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:25.040
<v Speaker 1>to test mRNA vaccines against several infectious diseases, including HIV, influenza, zica,

0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:29.320
<v Speaker 1>and rabies. Other research is testing whether m RNA technology

0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:33.559
<v Speaker 1>could prevent cancer from recurring. It turns out that mRNA

0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:36.920
<v Speaker 1>vaccines can target almost any pathogen as long as you

0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:40.520
<v Speaker 1>code for the right protein to stimulate the right immune response.

0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:45.599
<v Speaker 1>That means scientists the diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, hepatitis B,

0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:49.040
<v Speaker 1>and cystic fibrosis could all be prevented in the future

0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:55.240
<v Speaker 1>with mRNA vaccines. Getfort said, these vaccines are remarkable even

0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:58.320
<v Speaker 1>an older adults. They work really, really well, which is

0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:01.640
<v Speaker 1>unusual for most any vaccine that we have, so that's

0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:09.400
<v Speaker 1>just remarkable. Today's episode is based on the article will

0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:13.560
<v Speaker 1>m RNA technology transform medicine beyond COVID nineteen on how

0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.880
<v Speaker 1>stuff Works dot Com, written by Jennifer Walker. Journey brain

0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:19.040
<v Speaker 1>Stuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership with

0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:22.240
<v Speaker 1>HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Clang. Four

0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.320
<v Speaker 1>more podcasts from my heart Radio visit the heart Radio app,

0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:28.199
<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.