For clarity’s sake, is “Damaged mRNA doesn’t cause additional risks. It just won’t produce the desired proteins.” the claim that:
A) the vaccine mRNA can only become inert when stored improperly, or that
B) the probability of changes to the mRNA due to the incorrect handling producing a dangerous, unintended protein is vanishingly small?
I would assume B is correct but perhaps there is something about the chemical reactions that take place at higher temps that do result in what is better views as a non-mRNA compound that is incapable of producing any protein.
Epistemic status: I did study bioinformatics but it’s been more then a decade, so I have basic familarity but no strong expertise.
I meant B. Most mRNA errors will result in no protein being produced.
One scenario is that you have the mRNA cut somewhere in the middle. The front of the mRNA is marked with a 5′ cap addition. The tail of the cut mRNA doesn’t have that, so it won’t be processed into a protein.
The front with does have the 5′ cap addition however doesn’t have the polyadenylation at the end of the mRNA that normally marks the end of it. Lacking that exonucleases will degrade it. This is a process that the body has to get rid of damaged mRNA.
Given these processes I would expect that no clinical significant amount of proteins that only has the front X amino acids gets build.
Even with proper handling many mRNA molecules will be damaged by the time they reach the ribosomes inside cells. If damaged mRNA molecules would cause problems you would likely see those problems also in patients in the clinical trials.
For clarity’s sake, is “Damaged mRNA doesn’t cause additional risks. It just won’t produce the desired proteins.” the claim that:
A) the vaccine mRNA can only become inert when stored improperly, or that
B) the probability of changes to the mRNA due to the incorrect handling producing a dangerous, unintended protein is vanishingly small?
I would assume B is correct but perhaps there is something about the chemical reactions that take place at higher temps that do result in what is better views as a non-mRNA compound that is incapable of producing any protein.
Epistemic status: I did study bioinformatics but it’s been more then a decade, so I have basic familarity but no strong expertise.
I meant B. Most mRNA errors will result in no protein being produced.
One scenario is that you have the mRNA cut somewhere in the middle. The front of the mRNA is marked with a 5′ cap addition. The tail of the cut mRNA doesn’t have that, so it won’t be processed into a protein.
The front with does have the 5′ cap addition however doesn’t have the polyadenylation at the end of the mRNA that normally marks the end of it. Lacking that exonucleases will degrade it. This is a process that the body has to get rid of damaged mRNA.
Given these processes I would expect that no clinical significant amount of proteins that only has the front X amino acids gets build.
Even with proper handling many mRNA molecules will be damaged by the time they reach the ribosomes inside cells. If damaged mRNA molecules would cause problems you would likely see those problems also in patients in the clinical trials.