The developed vaccine in the US is a significant breakthrough in the fight against AIDS thanks to mRNA technology • Dr. Avi Yaakov explains
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If you ask scientists and doctors what invention changed the world of medicine?
There is no doubt that the answer will be the invention of the vaccine.
The invention of vaccines has been one of the great contributions to human health and is on par with the development of running water, sanitation and the discovery of penicillin.
Until the 19th century, infections were a significant cause of death in children and adults.
Morbidity in diseases such as smallpox, measles, whooping cough, tetanus and rabies has been a death sentence many times.
However, since the first vaccines against infectious diseases were developed in the 19th century, there has been a sharp decline in industrialized countries in child mortality and some of the diseases have simply been eradicated.
The first vaccine was developed by Edward Jenner against smallpox.
Dr. Jenner was a rural doctor when he noticed that crematoria were not infected with smallpox. He discovered that those who contracted chickenpox, a relatively mild disease, were protected from smallpox which is a very serious disease.
The vaccine he developed was given for free to the entire British population but was given under duress, which caused great resistance in the kingdom due to the Vaccines Act of 1871 (history goes back ?!).
Later, the World Health Organization's global immunization program was launched, which reduced the incidence of diseases such as polio and measles.
Despite the dizzying successes, some 7 million toddlers still die each year from vaccine-preventable diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhea-causing infections. .
If you thought vaccines were only meant to prevent infectious diseases, it turns out that vaccines can do much more than that.
Vaccines help prevent cancer such as cervical cancer that has been linked to papillomavirus as well as liver cancer caused by hepatitis B infection.
In recent years, the papilloma vaccine has been included in the vaccination program in Israel in order to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer in women.
In the near future it will be possible to vaccinate against the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and the EBV virus which have been found to be risk factors for various malignancies.
Will we be vaccinated against HIV in the future?
Another exciting and important development in recent years is an attempt to produce a vaccine against the HIV virus.
The HIV virus produces a protein (SPIKE) that acts as a kind of "key" that opens our body's cells to the virus and allows it to enter cells and multiply in them.
The developed vaccine in the US is a significant breakthrough in the fight against AIDS. Scientists have identified a unique cell in our immune system that is able to produce antibodies that neutralize the "key" protein of the virus and thus the virus is unable to penetrate and multiply in human cells.
Early clinical trials have shown that the vaccine produces in the body the ability to secrete antibodies that neutralize the key and prevent infection.
The road to obtaining a commercial vaccine is still long but if the scientists do succeed in developing the vaccine, it will be a promising line as we will be able to vaccinate with this immune mechanism against many other diseases that currently do not have an effective vaccine as a sample.
And what about the corona vaccine?
The Corona vaccine we have been familiar with for the past year, and despite the unequivocal results showing its effectiveness, is still a widespread issue for its safety debate, using mRNA-based vaccination technology.
How does the vaccine work?
When the corona virus enters our body, it injects into its cells its genetic information (RNA) that contains "replication instructions" to produce more corona viruses.
In doing so, the virus multiplies in our body using our cells - which become factories for the production of the virus.
mRNA is a protein that is a "recipe" for the production of various proteins of the virus.
These proteins cannot cause harm as they contain only parts of the virus.
The proteins produced are introduced into our immune system that develops "immune memory" so that when our immune system is exposed to a real virus, it easily recognizes it and is able to deal with it and destroy it.
The mRNA does not affect our genetic information and it itself breaks down after a short time so it does not cause long-term damage.
This technology holds great promise as it can be used to develop vaccines for many infectious diseases as well as genetic diseases and cancer.
In conclusion, vaccines have been one of the most significant factors in extending our life expectancy, improving the quality of life and reducing the economic burden of disease.
In the foreseeable future, we will probably be able to vaccinate and change courses of non-infectious diseases such as malignancies of various kinds, and perhaps even a course of chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and Alzheimer’s.
Already today the best medical doctors work on these developments on a daily basis.
Dr. Avi Yaakov specializes in family medicine at Leumit Health Services
