the researchers have shown for the first time that mRNA can be delivered into the cells where HIV is hiding, by encasing it in a tiny, specially formulated fat bubble. The mRNA then instructs the cells to reveal the virus.
Am I the only one kinda scared about mRNA treatments?
I have always wondered how a zombie apocalypse could come about, like, from a biochemical perspective, and mRNA seems to me a very good candidate.
Obviously it has a massive potential to cure otherwise incurable diseases, like genetic defects…
Edit: Sheesh thanks for the downvotes, teaches me to ask a question on Lemmy.
No you’re not the only one, lots of uninformed people are scared.
If you are aware of a specific mechanism that this kind of treatment can go poorly, then you are free to share the studies or the research that supports it.
But just being scared of new things isn’t beneficial. There are whole communities that are keeping diseases alive because they don’t trust science.
You know what cracks me up? That there’s a rather high likelihood that I know more about mRNA that you do. Ignorance is bliss I suppose.
If you are aware of a specific mechanism that this kind of treatment can go poorly
Alright, so here’s one a concern.
As you’re certainly aware, there are studies that have found that viral RNA can carry into the host’s nucleus and be reverse-transcribed into the infected cell’s genome (for your convenience, here’s one such finding for SARS-CoV-2 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2105968118), and that it produces chimeric transcripts that fuse the viral and host sequences.
Can you address how an mRNA vaccine would be able to ensure that such reverse transcription would not occur?
Here’s another concern.
The Pfizer BNT162b2 COVID vaccine is, of course, a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) mRNA vaccine, which is basically the approach discussed in the OP article. This article (Curr. Issues Mol. Biol. 2022, 44(3), 1115-1126) found that BNT162b2 mRNA is reverse transcribed intracellularly into DNA in as fast as 6 h upon BNT162b2 exposure. Not only that, it has also found increased nuclear expression and distribution of LINE-1, an endogenous reverse transcriptase.
Since we previously covered the integration of foreign RNA into the host’s DNA, can you please explain how do you propose to identify and control for possible epigenetic effects of mRNA vaccines?
Seems like people found my zombie apocalypse parallel a bit too farfetched, but cancerous growth and tumors are in essence breakdowns of the genetic machinary in our cells, which mRNA vaccines are just too happy to mess with. All I’m advocating is more research, better understanding, and safety.
The payload of many viruses is RNA very similar to mRNA and injecting it into cells is how they reproduce.
Given how frequent are mutations in viruses, if there was to be a zombie apocalypse, natural selection would have done it by now.
Some kind of deadly pandemic is more likely to happen due to mRNA manipulation (and it would have to be on purpose, as the mRNA would need to come with instruction to reproduce in a way that lets it travel from cell to cell, i.e. de facto be an RNA virus which hardly happens by chance) than one which produces zombies.
Am I the only one kinda scared about mRNA treatments?
I have always wondered how a zombie apocalypse could come about, like, from a biochemical perspective, and mRNA seems to me a very good candidate.
Obviously it has a massive potential to cure otherwise incurable diseases, like genetic defects…
Edit: Sheesh thanks for the downvotes, teaches me to ask a question on Lemmy.
No you’re not the only one, lots of uninformed people are scared.
If you are aware of a specific mechanism that this kind of treatment can go poorly, then you are free to share the studies or the research that supports it.
But just being scared of new things isn’t beneficial. There are whole communities that are keeping diseases alive because they don’t trust science.
You know what cracks me up? That there’s a rather high likelihood that I know more about mRNA that you do. Ignorance is bliss I suppose.
Alright, so here’s one a concern.
As you’re certainly aware, there are studies that have found that viral RNA can carry into the host’s nucleus and be reverse-transcribed into the infected cell’s genome (for your convenience, here’s one such finding for SARS-CoV-2 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2105968118), and that it produces chimeric transcripts that fuse the viral and host sequences.
Can you address how an mRNA vaccine would be able to ensure that such reverse transcription would not occur?
Here’s another concern.
The Pfizer BNT162b2 COVID vaccine is, of course, a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) mRNA vaccine, which is basically the approach discussed in the OP article. This article (Curr. Issues Mol. Biol. 2022, 44(3), 1115-1126) found that BNT162b2 mRNA is reverse transcribed intracellularly into DNA in as fast as 6 h upon BNT162b2 exposure. Not only that, it has also found increased nuclear expression and distribution of LINE-1, an endogenous reverse transcriptase.
Since we previously covered the integration of foreign RNA into the host’s DNA, can you please explain how do you propose to identify and control for possible epigenetic effects of mRNA vaccines?
Seems like people found my zombie apocalypse parallel a bit too farfetched, but cancerous growth and tumors are in essence breakdowns of the genetic machinary in our cells, which mRNA vaccines are just too happy to mess with. All I’m advocating is more research, better understanding, and safety.
It’s okay to be scared of new advances in medicine. But it’s also important that you tamper that fear against medical and scientific evidence.
mRNA has been in research for years, well beyond the covid vaccine. Understanding how and why it works is important to understand its safety.
The payload of many viruses is RNA very similar to mRNA and injecting it into cells is how they reproduce.
Given how frequent are mutations in viruses, if there was to be a zombie apocalypse, natural selection would have done it by now.
Some kind of deadly pandemic is more likely to happen due to mRNA manipulation (and it would have to be on purpose, as the mRNA would need to come with instruction to reproduce in a way that lets it travel from cell to cell, i.e. de facto be an RNA virus which hardly happens by chance) than one which produces zombies.