MRNA ’s Next Chapter Has Nothing to Do With COVID-19 Vaccines

It’s safe to say that before the development of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, most people hadn’t thought about messenger RNA, or mRNA, since high school science class—if ever. The molecule plays a pivotal role in the body, carrying the recipes for making various proteins to the parts of cells that produce them. But “mRNA” wasn’t exactly a common phrase until Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna harnessed the genetic material’s power to teach the body to make a piece of a protein found on the COVID-19 virus’ surface, thus training it to fight the real thing, were it to attack. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The tremendous efficacy of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines has generated plenty of excitement about its potential use in vaccines for other diseases. And vaccines may be just the beginning. Last month, researchers used mRNA to deliver CRISPR gene-editing technology that could permanently treat a rare genetic disease in humans—an advance that experts say has implications far beyond the treatment of a single condition. Medical science research utilizing CRISPR—a system that allows scientists to add, remove or change specific genetic information within the body—had already been advancing rapidly in recent years. Researchers have shown its potential for reversing blindness and sickle cell anemia, and to treat genetic diseases in animals. But new work described in the New England Journal of ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate medicine Source Type: news