In our bodies right now, messenger RNA, or mRNA, is sending genetic instructions for cells to make proteins—the machines of life that make heart muscles beat, hair follicles grow, and many other biological process happen. This mRNA is a long molecule that contains instructions that a cell uses to create proteins.
Knowing this, in January 2020 scientists sequenced the entire genetic code of SARS-CoV-2, which causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and discovered the mRNA that codes for the notorious spike proteins that get the virus into human cells. Scientists quickly produced this particular mRNA in the lab.
“Think of mRNA as a text message to tell cells what to make,” says UNC Health infectious diseases specialist David A. Wohl, MD. “For a vaccine, we’ve been kind of clever and said, ‘what if we send our cells a text message so that they make some of the virus proteins. Then our body would see these proteins and react by making antibodies against them.’”
Read the UNC Health Talk article here.