07-08-2021, 04:06 PM
I'm really glad to see this thread. I'm worried that it won't be true, but for petty reasons unrelated to the strict technological limits of humanity. It seems like there's some amount of struggle to get people to believe in the rapid development potential of mRNA vaccines, and there's some struggle to get decision-makers to understand the true potential of such rapidly developable disease interventions. Without belief, vaccines are impotent.
I obviously hope to be wrong. I'm keenly interested in mRNA vaccines as a technology. I hope they can even obsolete (improve upon) some current vaccines, though I'm not sure that research is currently being pursued. I also hope that they can vaccinate against diseases that are presently untargetable (such as HIV). I believe that this research is being attempted; I hope governments are willing to bring international coordination to bear in service to the cause of destroying viruses. HIV is of particular interest to me, as it drives international stigmatization against gay people, but also due to the basic incompetency of the immune system against it. Unless I'm quite mistaken about the implications of handing a new source of effective antibodies to the immune system, the inability of the basal immune system to generate effective antibodies against HIV means that such a vaccine would also have therapeutic application for present sufferers of the disease.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33837212/ (Title: Lipid nanoparticle encapsulated nucleoside-modified mRNA vaccines elicit polyfunctional HIV-1 antibodies comparable to proteins in nonhuman primates)
Their potential even extends beyond viruses. For instance, mRNA vaccines may be able to shift allergic responses from IgE-dominated (eosinophilic) to IgG-dominated (macrophage-based), which would eliminate the risk of anaphylaxis. I found this potential to be medically surprising and rather inspiring. This may seem off-topic, but it's such a "child health" topic that I think it has significant potential to "move the needle" on mRNA acceptance if they become widely deployed for this purpose. I've a few pubmed links to offer for this one:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30063806/ (Title: DNA and mRNA vaccination against allergies)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27987146/ (Title: Generation and Evaluation of Prophylactic mRNA Vaccines Against Allergy)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20856111/ (Title: Prophylactic mRNA vaccination against allergy)
Due to my fear that positive potentials in mRNA vaccination will be underutilized, I'm studying to get into immunology research as a potential future career. This is one of my two serious "irons in the fire", the other of which has no relevance in this thread.
I obviously hope to be wrong. I'm keenly interested in mRNA vaccines as a technology. I hope they can even obsolete (improve upon) some current vaccines, though I'm not sure that research is currently being pursued. I also hope that they can vaccinate against diseases that are presently untargetable (such as HIV). I believe that this research is being attempted; I hope governments are willing to bring international coordination to bear in service to the cause of destroying viruses. HIV is of particular interest to me, as it drives international stigmatization against gay people, but also due to the basic incompetency of the immune system against it. Unless I'm quite mistaken about the implications of handing a new source of effective antibodies to the immune system, the inability of the basal immune system to generate effective antibodies against HIV means that such a vaccine would also have therapeutic application for present sufferers of the disease.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33837212/ (Title: Lipid nanoparticle encapsulated nucleoside-modified mRNA vaccines elicit polyfunctional HIV-1 antibodies comparable to proteins in nonhuman primates)
Their potential even extends beyond viruses. For instance, mRNA vaccines may be able to shift allergic responses from IgE-dominated (eosinophilic) to IgG-dominated (macrophage-based), which would eliminate the risk of anaphylaxis. I found this potential to be medically surprising and rather inspiring. This may seem off-topic, but it's such a "child health" topic that I think it has significant potential to "move the needle" on mRNA acceptance if they become widely deployed for this purpose. I've a few pubmed links to offer for this one:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30063806/ (Title: DNA and mRNA vaccination against allergies)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27987146/ (Title: Generation and Evaluation of Prophylactic mRNA Vaccines Against Allergy)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20856111/ (Title: Prophylactic mRNA vaccination against allergy)
Due to my fear that positive potentials in mRNA vaccination will be underutilized, I'm studying to get into immunology research as a potential future career. This is one of my two serious "irons in the fire", the other of which has no relevance in this thread.