France and Germany also took similar decisions.
The following content dates from before AstraZeneca was temporarily discontinued, which explains why it refers to three vaccines currently in use (the two mRNA plus AstraZeneca).
For any changes we await news on the topic.
With the COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020, numerous research centers around the world have launched a trial process aimed at creating an effective and safe vaccine against SARS-CoV-2.
In principle, the schedule of waiting times for the first vaccines was more than a year.
However, some pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies involved in the trial have forged ahead and managed to distribute the first vaccine preparations approved already between the end of December 2020 and January 2021.
As of February 2021, three COVD-19 vaccines have been approved and distributed, and several are still undergoing clinical trials or awaiting approval.
This article aims to analyze in a simple way a specific type of anti-COVID-19 vaccines: mRNA vaccines (or RNA vaccines).
The biotechnology of mRNA vaccines is the basis of two of the three types of vaccination approved and distributed in February 2021; more specifically, we are talking about Comirnaty Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna.
For further information: Anti COVID-19 vaccines: the various types dead or weakened, or of a fundamental component (eg: a protein), mRNA vaccines exploit a completely different strategy to create immunization: they contain a bioengineered messenger RNA (mRNA) sequence, coding for a specific protein of the "infectious agent and capable of using the apparatus for protein synthesis (ribosomes) present in human cells; with their administration, the messenger RNA enters human cells and gives them the instructions for the synthesis of the protein of the infectious agent, which, once produced, will act as an antigen, that is, a trigger for the immune system and the consequent process immunization.
The mRNA vaccines, therefore, contain a sequence of messenger RNA which, inside human cells, triggers the production of an infectious agent protein capable of stimulating, as if it were a normal antigen, the production of antibodies and T lymphocytes. necessary for immunization.
A fundamental event for the triggering of the immune response is the exposure of the protein encoded on the cell surface.
The applications of mRNA vaccines, among other things, are not limited to microbiology: several studies conducted on the technology described above have shown that mRNA vaccines could be exploited with comforting results also in the treatment of cancer, representing, in the case in question, a kind of immunotherapy.
The great interest in mRNA vaccines stems from the fact that, compared to traditional vaccines, they are significantly faster and cheaper to produce, and, when compared to attenuated vaccines, even safer.
