Saturday 24 July 2021

How Does The Covid-19 Vaccine Work ? Understanding mRNA Vaccines


Ther prime factor that can protect you from an infection that you have been introduced to - your own immunity.A vaccine is just a 'trick' used to enhance your immunity in way you desire.

Developing Natural Immunity 

When a virus enters your body,your immune system recognises it as a an alien,and initiates an attack. How ? By producing antibodies which are specific to the antigens ( the spike proteins ) present on a virus.Each virus has a unique morphology.

It is like how you recognise a Tamizh movie villain with his mole.



However,it takes time for your body to produce enough antibodies to fight the army.Often,the virus would have already infected your cells and multiplied in a million-fold to hit you down with symptoms.

Imagine a new form of insect which is resistant to your insecticide spray.They swarm into your living room and you are clueless.Aware of their presence,but clueless.You take a few days to develop a new spray which can kill the pest.By then,these insects have nibbled you bad enough that you fall sick...

Vaccines - a technology to enhance your latent immunity

Now,your intellect is aware of a new virus - which your immunity is still innocent to.

So you wanna trick your immunity a little.It is like you,as a chief commander,had used Dr Strange's portal to foresee an alien attack.


So,you want to prepare your army beforehand.

Traditionally,a vaccine was simply a weakened version of the actual virus,which was thrown into your body.Your immune system develops exactly as how it would towards a functionable virus.

They key is,the inactivated virus cannot actively infect your system.But your body has learnt about the features of the virus and has produced enough antibodies for protection.

So you develop immunity without having to fall sick.

It is like knowing the features of the insecticide-resistant insect before even seeing them and teaching your housemates on how to produce an effective spray.You guys start manufacturing enough sprays and not just that - you can instantly prepare those sprays even if those insects were to infect you a year later ! You don't stand clueless as how you did in the initial scenario.

mRNA Vaccine - The Covid Vaccine

Today,we have a smarter way of vaccination.The Covid vaccine is an mRNA vaccine.

Here,we simply isolate the RNA ( The blueprint of the virus,which has the code or recipe to manufacture the antigen or the spike protein for the virus ) of the virus and insert it into your cell.


Your cell reads the recipe given,and manufactures the spike proteins alone,without creating the complete virus.Your cell now releases the spike proteins into your system so they can say 'hi' to your immune guys.

Your immune system does the same work again - producing antibodies which are specific to the spike proteins.

When an actual virus enters you,your immune system recognises the spike protein.The readymade antibodies then attack the spike proteins,which also means attacking the virus and rendering them useless.

This is like educating your army about the weapon your enemy possesses. You don't need to know every detail about the insects that are gonna attack you in future.You just need to study their weapon - their wings.

Then,you save time because you just create a spray that can break the wings.And when the insects actually turn up in future,you just spray and break their wings - and they are rendered useless.

Also Read :

(1) How you nail polish can alter an oximeter reading

(2) Social Distancing Does not Guarantee Protection from Covid19 ! 


4 comments:

  1. What is Mrna ? What that M stands for ? why not just RNA vaccine

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Essentially the same thing . The 'M' stands for messenger.So messenger RNA in short.The messenger RNA is the exact recipe which is being deciphered by your cell to produce the protein .
      RNA is more of an umbrella term for a blueprint that can code for proteins..

      Delete
  2. Nice one Vinnith! Neatly explained. For your readers, here's an excellent page:
    https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/the-race-for-a-covid-19-vaccine-explained

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