Experts claim that Modern and Pfizer vaccines mark the beginning of a huge revolution in the world of medicine • Will the new method be effective in the fight against cancer?
The innovative vaccine against the corona virus of the companies Pfizer and Moderna, is a huge breakthrough in the fight against viruses, infections and even cancer, a breakthrough of the kind that can bring about a real turn in dealing with people with serious illnesses.
This is because it is a new method of fighting viruses and diseases that has not been used before, and which has dramatically shortened the path to finding a cure.
Photo: Reuters
The classic method of finding vaccines and drugs
In the classical research method what they do is find a way to produce a weak virus or bacterium that will not harm the body, and will teach it to fight the bacteria and healthy viruses that will come in the future.
Sometimes it is not necessary to introduce a live virus into the body, but enough of a killed virus or a genetically modified virus that does not harm the body and carries traits that teach the body how to fight a bacterium or virus that is dangerous to it.
The problem with these methods is that they take about a decade to find the right way to produce a vaccine or safe drug, when in the case of hepatitis B it took the scientific world 18 years to find a vaccine.
Beyond that, there is a need for huge facilities that cost many billions, while research time also costs a lot of money.
Modern, on the other hand, has been able to produce an initial cure for the corona virus 63 days since it infected its genome, and Pfizer has also achieved a rapid breakthrough when, about a year after the disease first broke out, companies are seeking FDA approval for their vaccine.
By the way there are other companies in the pipeline that are really close to finding a vaccine and they will mature to submit it for approval soon.
A breakthrough called MRNA
In fact, the idea of the new method of treatment has existed in the world for about 60 years.
It is a substance called MRNA that enters the cell and asks its protein production system to produce a very specific protein.
For example, in the case of the corona, the cells can be asked to produce only the protein that allows the virus to break into the cells, without the body being harmed at all.
Thus the body learns to deal with one protein of the virus, which is very significant for its ability to multiply in the body, without being harmed, and by the way when it encounters the protein with the virus it will already recognize itself that there is an invader to fight, and also have the knowledge to do so.
The problem with this method proposed by the American researcher of Hungarian descent, Dr. Kathleen Kariko, was that the protein production caused the body's immune system to go wild and react very strongly. Therefore, the possibility of using MRNA was stuck for years.
Photo: Pfizer
Everything changed in 2005 when Dr. Carico worked at the University of Pennsylvania, where together with other scientists she developed the method that currently works in Pfizer or Moderna to produce a vaccine that would not cause the whole body's immune system to go wild.
Speaking to Reuters, Dr. Carico, who now works for Modern, said: "After my breakthrough, it took another 15 years and a global epidemic to actually try this treatment.
Along the way my colleagues would laugh at my research and life work that it is not progressing anywhere.
The highlight was when I arrived at Modern Company.
The company did not even have a website to read about and they laughed at me for moving to work at an unfamiliar company at all.
Today, of course, they follow our developments with great interest. "
Cure for cancer and other serious diseases
In fact, the use of MRNA can be a starting point for many other drugs, because in this way the body can be taught to identify sections and proteins of viruses and even of cancer cells as those that endanger it and need to be killed.
In this context, Pfizer's German partner, Bintech, is conducting an experiment with the melanoma skin cancer vaccine together with the Swiss company Roche.
In cancer cells, of course, this is a more complex act because the disease is caused by the body cells becoming out of balance and starting to multiply in a life-threatening way.
Here too, however, the process usually occurs due to a defect or distortion in the DNA coding system of certain cells, which causes them to divide wildly, so in fact the body can be taught in the same way to recognize only those cells as dangerous and attack them, without injecting a person with harmful drugs. While cells or weakens the rest of the body as is happening today.
In this way, modernity is planned, for example, as a medicine against ovarian cancer as well as against ischemia of the heart.
A revolution in the costs and size of factories
One of the most important points in the new method is its small cost compared to past processes.
If in order to lead research and activity against disease, it was necessary in the past for many years, in large factories and billions, then to produce MRNA takes much less time from the moment of genetic genetics of the disease as well as little space.
On the other hand, since it is a biological material that is not a living cell but part of a cell, it needs good cooling conditions so that it does not break down.
Modern vaccines need minus 20 degrees and Pfizer's minus 70 degrees.
This point will probably also get rid of soon and it is possible that the medical world is facing a real revolution in the field of finding and manufacturing new drugs for diseases that until today we have not had an effective way to treat.