2023-10-03 19:15:55
Biochemist Katalin Karikó and immunologist Drew Weissman received the prestigious award for their contributions to the development of effective mRNA vaccines against the coronavirus.
The arrival of the pandemic unleashed a race against the clock in science, practically without precedent, to search for and develop technologies and platforms for diagnosis, prevention and treatments. In those hectic months, Hungarian biochemist Katalin Karikó and American immunologist Drew Weissman provided key insights, enabling the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. The effort bore fruit, collectively, but also individually: this Monday, both received the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
For the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, Kariló and Weissman – who work together at the University of Pennsylvania, United States – laid the foundation for critically important advances that served humanity during the coronavirus pandemic. “The awardees contributed at an unprecedented pace to vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times,” the committee added in a statement.
“Without a doubt, the award is more than deserved, because the strategy allowed, in practically one year, the development of this type of vaccines,” Jorge Geffner, senior researcher at the National Council, highlighted in dialogue with the CTyS-UNLaM Agency. of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) of Argentina and who was the head, during the pandemic, of the Coronavirus COVID-19 Unit, made up of CONICET, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and the R&D&i Agency.
Biochemist Katalin Karikó and immunologist Drew Weissman. (Drawing: Niklas Elmehed / © Nobel Prize Outreach)
To give an idea of the magnitude of this research, Geffner explained what the “hierarchical” functioning within cells is like: “Cellular functioning is built on three types of molecules: DNA, RNA and proteins. DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is in the nucleus, and the genetic code is copied to a second molecule, which is when we move to a second order of hierarchy, RNA or ribonucleic acid. This, using cellular machinery, from ribosomes, manufactures proteins, which are the third level.”
What happens, then, with vaccines, both against COVID and against other diseases? “The vaccines we are used to, such as those currently applied in the national vaccination schedule, were, until now, constructed in two different ways: with an infectious agent or by inoculating the protein,” Geffner explained. The first is used, for example, for polio, with the inactivated virus, or with Sabin, which is the attenuated virus. The second was used in some COVID injections, using the spike protein of the coronavirus.”
On the other hand, the platform developed by the award-winning researchers – and which had already been studied since the 1960s – involves the inoculation not of the virus or proteins, but of the messenger RNA, taken by the patient’s own cells, and inoculating , in this way, the code. “This has an advantage in terms of production and in terms of adapting changes. Because if you have a production plant for the Wuhan variant, with modifications you can start producing for the omicron, etc. Studies are even being developed for possible vaccines against the influenza virus, hepatitis or HIV, but there is a long way to go for that,” the expert clarified.
There are so many expectations placed on these platforms that, Geffner explained, they could even be used for tumors, not prophylactically, but therapeutically and, again, with many stages and studies to be done, in the long term.
“We still have to study them and demonstrate that they are effective. But, as an example, if we had three patients with melanoma, which is a skin cancer, the antigens, which is where the vaccine is directed, are different in each of those people, even having the same type of tumor. But, with these platforms, personalized vaccines could be thought of, with a specific RNA,” the researcher postulated.
Geffner, a doctor in Biochemistry and based at the Institute for Biomedical Research in Retroviruses and AIDS (INBIRS), recently obtained the Platinum Konex in the Pandemic category, for his contributions and contributions at the local level.
“The recognition is individual, but it is an excuse, because Argentine science in general has done a lot against the pandemic. It is important to highlight this, especially at a time when one of the candidates talks about closing CONICET and lowering the budget for science. We work a lot on the development of respirators, diagnostic kits, we have approached the pandemic from all angles and disciplines, both from the COVID-19 Unit and from the universities. “It is a recognition of all science in general.”
In addition to highlighting all the work done by Juliana Cassataro’s team at UNSAM, which is developing the first entirely Argentine vaccine against COVID, Geffner warned that, as there is less hospitalization and mortality, vaccination rates seem to decrease. “The policy of booster vaccines is key, for everyone, but especially people over 50 years of age or who suffer from comorbidities. The vaccination process must continue, “he assured. (Source: Nicolás Camargo Lescano (CTyS-UNLaM Agency))
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