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Amazing technology. What I cannot understand is how can a foreign mRNA be injected so efficiently into host's cells without all the virus-like methods to be app

Amazing technology. What I cannot understand is how can a foreign mRNA be injected so efficiently into host's cells without all the virus-like methods to be applied? Why should host cells be ready to accept any mRNA from their environment so blindly? Wouldn't it be used by natural selection to create subviral agents which will destroy such naive host cells rather quickly?

_Microft 5y ago
The mRNA is hidden inside lipid nano-droplets. These droplets merge with cells and the mRNA gets released into them. From what I understand, pure mRNA would be broken down if it ended up in the interstitium (fluid filled space between cells) without being hidden inside this lipid shell. The sequence is also slightly altered compared to original one to make it more stable and less likely to produce an immune response (one of the bases ('U') is swapped out for one that is functionally the same but does not trigger the immune system). You can read more about the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine and the lipid particles here: https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/reverse-engineering-source-code-of-the-biontech-pfizer-vaccine/ https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/reverse-engineering-source... https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2021/01/11/rna-vaccines-and-their-lipids https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2021/01/11/rn... mRNA is just instructions, it does not have to "authenticate" itself with the cell. If it is in there, it will be "executed". The filtering is done before stuff should get into cells (i.e. caught be the immune system).
- ethbr0 5y ago
  Lipid nanoparticles, and the research done around their ability to serve as transport and safety, are the real technological breakthrough here. Not to say the mRNA technology isn't amazing, but if we had it but no LNPs, we'd have a whole lot of nothing.
  - _Microft 5y ago
    You might be interested in this article. It is about a biochemist who invented the way to prepare these nanoparticles but was cheated out of his share of the fame and money. https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2021/08/17/covids-forgotten-hero-the-untold-story-of-the-scientist-whose-breakthrough-made-the-vaccines-possible/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2021/08/17/covids-f...
manwe150 5y ago
The short answer is that it is virus-like initially, in that it bypasses the cells passive defenses to enter the cell intact, but the payload can’t reproduce itself, so it dies out almost immediately afterwards, unlike a virus.

_Microft 5y ago

The mRNA is hidden inside lipid nano-droplets. These droplets merge with cells and the mRNA gets released into them. From what I understand, pure mRNA would be broken down if it ended up in the interstitium (fluid filled space between cells) without being hidden inside this lipid shell. The sequence is also slightly altered compared to original one to make it more stable and less likely to produce an immune response (one of the bases ('U') is swapped out for one that is functionally the same but does not trigger the immune system). You can read more about the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine and the lipid particles here: https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/reverse-engineering-source-code-of-the-biontech-pfizer-vaccine/ https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/reverse-engineering-source... https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2021/01/11/rna-vaccines-and-their-lipids https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2021/01/11/rn... mRNA is just instructions, it does not have to "authenticate" itself with the cell. If it is in there, it will be "executed". The filtering is done before stuff should get into cells (i.e. caught be the immune system).

ethbr0 5y ago
Lipid nanoparticles, and the research done around their ability to serve as transport and safety, are the real technological breakthrough here. Not to say the mRNA technology isn't amazing, but if we had it but no LNPs, we'd have a whole lot of nothing.
- _Microft 5y ago
  You might be interested in this article. It is about a biochemist who invented the way to prepare these nanoparticles but was cheated out of his share of the fame and money. https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2021/08/17/covids-forgotten-hero-the-untold-story-of-the-scientist-whose-breakthrough-made-the-vaccines-possible/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2021/08/17/covids-f...

manwe150 5y ago

The short answer is that it is virus-like initially, in that it bypasses the cells passive defenses to enter the cell intact, but the payload can’t reproduce itself, so it dies out almost immediately afterwards, unlike a virus.