The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are made of two primary Ingredients: a piece of mRNA and a lipid nanoparticle, which is made from different fats. The mRNA is essentially a set of instructions that tell our cells how to make a piece of protein called the spike protein which is found on the SARS-CoV-2 virus. For your body to develop protection the mRNA must enter your cells and that is where the lipid nanoparticles (LNP) are involved. LNP is like an envelope that delivers the instructions. The LNP is a combination of four different fats that create a shell around the mRNA that it allows it to penetrate into our cells. If you just inject mRNA on its own, your body doesn’t like that, and the mRNA will not enter your cells. The lipid nanoparticle is like a Trojan Horse for the mRNA. The mRNA is put inside the LNP and that allows it to enter the cell. Once mRNA is in the cell the cell will begin producing the spike protein which your body recognizes as an invader and you start to mount an immune response. The vaccines were able to be developed quickly because pharmaceutical companies had a head start. Research has been conducted on synthetic messenger RNA for over 40 years. The mRNA platform is considered a plug and play platform for vaccines and most of the initial research was for developing a flu vaccine. The second reason the vaccine came together quickly was because with the support of the US government, phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials were designed while the initial trials were underway rather than being developed sequentially. Note that the coronavirus vaccine’s components only remain in your body for a short time (which is why booster shots may be required in the future). The mRNA only lasts for a few days and it will degrade through the normal processes inherent to every cell in your body and the lipids are also metabolized through the normal pathways. For more information on COVID-19 vaccines in general, please visit here. If not enough people will take the vaccine for us to achieve herd immunity, the virus to continue to mutate to become more infectious and more deadly.
