[News Terms] 'Messenger Ribonucleic Acid' That Ended the COVID-19 Pandemic

'Messenger Ribonucleic Acid' Developers Awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology
Nobel Committee Praises "Significant Contribution to Ending COVID-19"

'Messenger ribonucleic acid (messenger RNA·mRNA)' is one of the carriers (RNA) that decodes the genetic information of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) inside the nucleus and delivers it to the ribosomes in the cytoplasm.

It is the RNA that acts as a messenger when DNA, composed of about 3 billion base pairs, is converted into protein. The RNA molecule can be described as RNA that has a 'code' serving as a blueprint for producing chemically encoded proteins. According to the information delivered by mRNA, cells operate factories to produce proteins necessary for the human body.

Nobel Prize medal
Photo by Asia Economy DB

It was first reported in May 1961 in the international academic journal Nature. In 1990, animal experiments successfully produced proteins using mRNA, but it was not developed into a therapeutic agent for humans due to excessive immune reactions and other effects. mRNA is very vulnerable to slight temperature changes and other environmental factors and is rapidly degraded by numerous enzymes in our body. This is because its large molecular weight makes it difficult to pass through the cell membrane.

Subsequently, with the development of drug delivery technology called 'Lipid Nano particle (LNP)', RNA molecules were encapsulated in LNPs, protecting them from minor environmental changes and enzymatic degradation, enabling them to pass through the cell membrane.

With the development of LNP, the development of cancer treatment and infectious disease prevention vaccines accelerated. The principle is to put mRNA inside tiny spheres wrapped in an oil membrane, deliver it to cells, induce the production of many proteins on the surface of cancer cells, and have immune cells in the body learn to kill the cancer cells. The COVID-19 vaccine also works by first identifying the genetic information of the virus and then creating specific proteins that make up the virus as mRNA, training immune cells to recognize them as enemies.

This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to the developers of the 'mRNA vaccine' that ended the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been three years since the commercialization of the mRNA vaccine in 2020.

The Nobel Committee at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden announced on the 2nd (local time) that the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Katalin Karik?, Senior Vice President of BioNTech, and Drew Weissman, Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, USA.

Although the decisive factor for the Nobel Prize was the COVID-19 pandemic and the commercialization of the mRNA vaccine, the main achievement of the two laureates was research conducted much earlier in 2008. In 2008, the two laureates published a study in the international academic journal Molecular Therapy showing that modifying some of the bases constituting mRNA could suppress the inflammatory response in the body, which was considered a limitation of mRNA vaccines.

The Nobel Committee stated, "At a time when one of the greatest threats to modern human health emerged, they demonstrated unprecedented speed in vaccine development, greatly contributing to ending the COVID-19 pandemic."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.