A SEMINAR REPORT ON MRNA

VACCINE
BY
TEMIDAYO FAROUK OLAPADE
18/57MB/00835
INTRODUCTION
• An mRNA vaccine is a type of vaccine that uses a copy of a molecule called messenger
RNA (mRNA) to produce an immune response (Park, 2020).
•  The vaccine delivers molecules of antigen-encoding mRNA into immune cells, which use the
designed mRNA as a template to build foreign protein that would normally be produced by
a pathogen or by a cancer cell.
• These protein molecules stimulate an adaptive immune response that teaches the body to
identify and destroy the corresponding pathogen or cancer cells (Park, 2020).
• The mRNA is delivered by a co-formulation of the RNA encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles that
protect the RNA strands and help their absorption into the cells (Kowalski, 2019).
MRNA
• The central component of a mRNA vaccine is its mRNA construct (Jackson, 2020). 
• The in vitro transcribed mRNA is generated from an engineered plasmid DNA, which has an RNA
polymerase promoter and sequence which corresponds to the mRNA construct.
• By combining T7 phage RNA polymerase and the plasmid DNA, the mRNA can be transcribed in
the lab.
• Efficacy of the vaccine is dependent on the stability and structure of the designed mRNA (Pardi,
2018).
MECHANISM OF ACTION MRNA
VACCINE
• mRNA vaccines introduce a short-lived (Hajj, 2017) synthetically created fragment of the RNA
sequence of a virus into the individual being vaccinated.
• These mRNA fragments are taken up by dendritic cells through phagocytosis (Hajj, 2017).
• The dendritic cells use their internal machinery (ribosomes) to read the mRNA and produce the
viral antigens.
• Once the viral antigens are produced by the host cell, the normal adaptive immune system
processes are followed.
• Antigens are broken down by proteasomes. Class I and class II MHC molecules then attach to the
antigen and transport it to the cellular membrane, "activating" the dendritic cell (Xu, 2020).  
• Once activated, dendritic cells migrate to lymph nodes, where they present the antigen to T
cells and B cells (Xu, 2020). 
• This triggers the production of antibodies specifically targeted to the antigen, ultimately
resulting in immunity (Batty, 2020).
ADMINISTRATION ROUTE OF MRNA
VACCINE
• Intradermal administration route
• Intramuscular administration route
• Intravenous administration route
• Intranodal administration route
DELIVERY STRATEGIES FOR MRNA
VACCINE
• Lipid Based Delivery
• Polymer Based Delivery
• Peptide Based Delivery
• Naked mRNA Vaccines
• Dendritic Cells-Based mRNA Vaccines
CATEGORIES OF MRNA VACCINE
• Self amplifying
• Non-self amplifying
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
OF MRNA VACCINE
• Advantages;
• It is easy and rapid to produce
• It is non-infectious

• Disadvantages;
• Storage
• Side effects
 CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATION
• mRNA vaccines represent a promising alternative to conventional
vaccine approaches because of their high potency, capacity for rapid
development and potential for low-cost manufacture and safe
administration. The first two mRNA vaccines (Pfizer-Biontech and
Moderna), which were developed at revolutionary speed to fight SARS-
CoV-2, have exceeded expectations and offer hope that the COVID-19
pandemic will end.
REFERENCES
• Batty CJ, Heise MT, Bachelder EM, Ainslie KM (December 2020). "Vaccine formulations in clinical development for the prevention of severe
acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection". Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews. 169: 168–89.
• Hajj KA, Whitehead KA (2017). "Tools for translation: non-viral materials for therapeutic mRNA delivery". Nature Reviews Materials. 2 (10):
17056.
• Jackson, Nicholas A. C.; Kester, Kent E.; Casimiro, Danilo; Gurunathan, Sanjay; DeRosa, Frank (2020). "The promise of mRNA vaccines: a
biotech and industrial perspective". NPJ Vaccines. 5 (1): 11.
• Kowalski PS, Rudra A, Miao L, Anderson DG (2019)."Delivering the Messenger: Advances in Technologies for Therapeutic mRNA
Delivery". Molecular Therapy. 27 (4): 710–28. 
• Pardi, Norbert; Hogan, Michael J.; Porter, Frederick W.; Weissman, Drew (2018). "mRNA vaccines — a new era in vaccinology". Nature
Reviews Drug Discovery. 17 (4): 261–279.
• Xu, Shuqin; Yang, Kunpeng; Li, Rose; Zhang, Lu (2020). "mRNA Vaccine Era—Mechanisms, Drug Platform and Clinical
Prospection". International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 21 (18): 6582.