Technology or method
Vaccination
Training the immune system with a harmless form or part of a pathogen. Smallpox eradication was certified in 1979 after a global eradication campaign.
mRNA vaccines
Vaccines that deliver mRNA instructions for a pathogen protein. Modified nucleosides help the mRNA avoid an unwanted immune alarm.Source: Karikó et al., 2005Source: Polack et al., 2020Source: Baden et al., 2021
Technology or method
How mRNA vaccines connects
mRNA vaccines is an example of
mRNA vaccines uses
Molecule
Messenger RNA
A copy of a gene's instructions that carries them from DNA to the ribosomes, where proteins are made.
Studied in
Your progress
Sources & further reading
The explanations on this page are our own summaries of these sources. Follow a link to read the original; if anything here disagrees with it, the original wins. How we choose and check sources.
Suppression of RNA recognition by Toll-like receptors: the impact of nucleoside modification and the evolutionary origin of RNA (opens the original in a new tab)
Karikó K, Buckstein M, Ni H, et al. (2005). Immunity 23:165-175.
Modified nucleosides reduce innate immune recognition of synthetic mRNA.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchSafety and efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 vaccine (opens the original in a new tab)
Polack FP, Thomas SJ, Kitchin N, et al. (2020). New England Journal of Medicine 383:2603-2615.
Peer-reviewedClinical trialEfficacy and safety of the mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (opens the original in a new tab)
Baden LR, El Sahly HM, Essink B, et al. (2021). New England Journal of Medicine 384:403-416.
Peer-reviewedClinical trial