First person injected with mRNA vaccine against influenza: New generation of vaccines with immense advantages

In Germany, adults are usually given dead vaccines against influenza.

But that could soon change: The first mRNA flu vaccine is being tested.

Inactivated vaccines contain inactivated viruses or components of the viruses, as informed by the Robert Koch Institute as the leading research institution of the German federal government. The mRNA technology is different:

. This genetic information is used by body cells to produce the specific antigen themselves. Antigens are substances that the body recognizes as foreign and against which it forms antibodies. These can be proteins on the cell surface of viruses, as the health information portal informs.

The result of vaccination with mRNA vaccines:

, according to the Paul Ehrlich Institute as the Federal Institute for Vaccines and Biomedical Medicines.

It is a relatively new technology:

But Moderna developed an mRNA flu vaccination that is currently being tested in an initial study on humans.

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The flu vaccines approved so far in Germany could grow in the not too distant future.

© Lukas Schulze / dpa

Conventional flu vaccines are only up to 60 percent effective

According to the Pharmazeutische Zeitung (PZ), the vaccine mRNA-1010 is the company's first seasonal flu vaccine candidate to be tested in a clinical study, according to a statement from Moderna. It is a tetravalent seasonal influenza vaccine candidate that complies with the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the composition of influenza vaccines including influenza A (H1N1) and influenza A (H3N2) as well as influenza B Yamagata and influenza B Viruses covering the Victoria line.

A total of 180 adults should be vaccinated in total, it said. The aim of the current study is to find out whether the vaccine triggers an immune response in the human body. The safety of the vaccine should also be proven.

According to Moderna, the advantage of the mRNA flu vaccine is that, like other mRNA vaccines that have already been approved, it is highly effective and can be produced comparatively quickly. As the PZ informs,

. The composition of the vaccines must be known six to nine months before the start of the vaccination, as the production of the antigens in chicken eggs requires a long lead time, according to the Pharmazeutische Zeitung. This is particularly problematic in view of the fact that influenza viruses that trigger flu can change quickly.

More sources: https://www.pei.de/SharedDocs/FAQs/;

https://www.rki.de/SharedDocs/FAQ/Impfen/Influenza/FAQ06.html

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List of rubric lists: © Lukas Schulze