An RNA-based vaccine for Influenza A

The Use of the Technology RNA-based Vaccines for Influenza A Name Institution Affiliation Course Date of Submission The use of the technology RNA-based vaccines for Influenza A 1.0 Introduction Infection occasioned by an inordinate virulent strain of this virus can very well lead to millions of deaths, like was witnessed in the 1918 influenza pandemic. In any year, this deadly virus infects between 15 and 20 percent of the population, and causes the death of 36,000 people in the United States alone, and over 500,000 deaths worldwide. There have been some significant improvements in influenza vaccines; however, their production and availability are suboptimal. Influenza A based virus infections remain a major source of mortality and morbidity worldwide. And due to the fact that the effectiveness of the existing antiviral drugs and vaccines is limited, there is a need to develop new treatment modalities. Among the commonest infections that occur in the upper respiratory track as well as the lungs are actually those that are caused by influenza A virus. Influenza A vaccines based on RNA is seen as possible solution since sequence matched, clinical grade material could be reliably and rapidly produced, and in a scalable process, which would allow for a quick response to the pandemic strains that emerge. Indeed RNA vaccines do induce balanced, long-lived as well as protective immunity to the influenza A virus infections in every mice young and old and this vaccine has proven to be protective upon thermal stress. RNA vaccines have the potency of tackling the substantial medical needs in this area of influenza prophylaxis as well as the wider realm of anti-infective vaccinology (Wong and Webby 2012). 2.0 How the Technology Works Notably, available approved RNA vaccines format does elicit both B and T cell-dependant protection and further targets multiple antigens, even those that are highly conserved viral nucleoproteins thus reinforcing its usefulness as a cross protective vaccine. It should be noted that the effective vaccination remains the most reliable prophylactic measure against influenza virus infections. Production technologies that culminated in the cell-based influenza vaccines have been developed since the 1930s. It gained wide use as a pertinent technology for pandemic contingency following the human infections by the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu in 1997. Pandemic vaccines have been developed using this technology ten years after the initial regulatory approval. Nevertheless, the production capacity for cell based influenza vaccines remains inadequate to tackle an influenza pandemic that strikes (Say, 2012). While the traditional vaccines offer an annual protection from the latest influenza strains, the viruses evolve and mutate so quickly that we will find ourselves right where we started in the following year. And that is where a new revolutionary vaccine would come in handy. The vaccines that are available work by basically teaching our immunity systems to recognize a pair of key proteins called HA and NA which are on the virus (Akan, et al., 2010). However, these proteins have the potency of changing very constantly, which makes it necessary that there be a development of new vaccines. Speed is of essence when it comes to halting a flu pandemic. Vaccination against flu is a usual practice in all parts of the world and it is increasingly gaining popularity. The idea behind flu vaccination is the need for the development of the "herd immunity". It is indeed argued that if 80 percent of the population can become immune against this virus, then its spreading can be significantly reduced (Stenekova, et al., 2011). Vaccines are particularly recommended to the high risk group of people who are the children and the elderly, other sensitive members in this category include the immune compromised, the people with asthma and diabetes. The main reason that the vaccine is more important to these groups of people is because the disease spreads very quickly from the most vulnerable to all other members of the society. This is why there is need for acceleration in the vaccine industry and the initiation of various experiments that would ensure that there are nobler and efficient vaccination methods (Gooskens, 2009). The influenza viruses are extremely variable and there is thus need for an annual development of a vaccine to counter that worrying fact. As it is, vaccine preparation is usually occasioned by the seasonal viral strains that are recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). In most cases the virus will be incubated inside a hen`s egg. The period that it is supposed to take is six months for this "vaccine" to mature. After that, it will then be mixed with some other ingredients which then results to the final vaccine (Petsch, et al., 2012). In some situations, the cells in a culture could instead be used - in the place of the egg - however, this particular process lasts quite long, seven months to be precise. The latest technological improvement in the field of vaccine manufacturing could lead to a safer yet faster vaccine production. mRNA is a small molecule for genetic expression (Tang and Stratton, 2013). It carries the information about building of proteins from the DNA to ribosome. If this mRNA molecule gets reprogrammed, then it generates synthesis of a particular immune protein, and the desired immune response could therefore be achieved. The mRNA vaccines have already gained wide usage in carcinoma immunotherapy. They are administered intradermally and a balanced immune response is attained by a targeted expression of immunoproteins which provide a strong anti-tumor effect (Lui, et al., 2009). Vaccination can be adjusted to be able to respond to the clinical situation. mRNA vaccine for influenza is developed to stimulate predictive (B and T cell dependent) an immune response against the influenza virus. The immune system has got two major mechanisms that collectively work towards overcoming the flu. The first mechanism is the antibody response, which is usually triggered whenever an immune system identifies proteins that are specific to the flu virus (Ritch and Garcia-Sastre, 2009). This happens as during the process of the body fighting off a flu infection since the body has in the past contracted the same flu strain. It can also happen because that patient received a vaccine that is specifically administered because of that version of the virus. The second mechanism is the cell-medicated immunity, where the T-cells of the body are activated so as to recognize fight the cells that are infected by the flu virus (Stenekova, 2011). Ordinarily, flu vaccines are set in a way that triggers only the antibody response. However, the mRNA vaccines whose production can take some six weeks only and stored at room temperature is programmed to induce T-cell-medicated immune reactions which then respond by attacking all the influenza strains and equally triggers the reaction of the antibodies to a certain strain (Petsch, et al., 2012). A medical professional administers this vaccine inoculating the patient with mRNA encoded so as to produce proteins that serve to generate the flu fighting mechanism. Clinical tests have reinforced its usefulness. mRNA vaccines for the common flu strains has the capability of hastily inducing protective levels of antibodies. Moreover, the mRNA in its contrast to HA and NA, provokes a response in the immune cells such as the deadly T-cells. They identify the flu virus and keep attacking it even after it mutates to avoid antibodies (Van-Tan and Sellwood, 2013). A test on an mRNA vaccine on a protein flu that does not change between strains indicated that the mRNA protected animals against a seasonal pandemic of human flu strain as well as the H5N1 bird flu, a confirmation that a well chosen mRNA vaccine can indeed give long-term protection against all strains of flu (Van-Tan and Sellwood, 2013). 3.0 Comparing the RNA-based Technology with Available Alternative Solutions Several solutions are available to counter the same problem that the RNA technology has been developed to solve. One such technology that is available for influenza vaccine is the DNA plasmid vaccine which has proven to be able to overcome some limitation posed by the current vaccines, and offers protection against a wide variety of strains. The DNA vaccines offer a significantly better protection against influenza A compared to the current killed-virus-vaccines. Immunization with hemaglutination DNA is effective with the immunogen that is exactly matched the challenge strain. The combination of HA DNA and the internal protein DNA from the various flu strains can provide a significant cross protection. The DNA vaccines against influenza present a number of advantages over immunization with vaccines that are made from the whole inactivated virus, recombinant product, or subunit vaccines. DNA vaccines have the potency of protecting the different antigenic variants. One other strength of this vaccine is the fact that since it is derived directly from the human specimen, then problems that come with divergent mutants are indeed minimized. The DNA vaccines are also easier to manufacture. One major drawback of this technology is that it has the potential risk of integrating into the genome of the host. As such, the best way to minimize this is to use RNA instead of DNA for the immunization. Another technology is the synthetic peptide vaccine. This technology is characterized by a number of advantages that it has over traditional vaccines that are based on dead pathogens. First is the fact that this technology is not only cheap but equally safe to use. Secondly it`s a highly standardized technology. It doesn`t have components that pose high reactogenicity such as toxins and limpopolysaccharides, and finally is the fact that it presents the possibility of removal of antigens fragments that exhibit allergenicity and cross reactivity. The other technologies that are in use include the egg-based manufacture of LAIV which has some features that make it quite suitable in the developing countries especially. To begin with, the technology that is required in this is simple and straightforward both at the industrial and laboratory scale (Black, 2009). Second, the time that is required to establish and approve a plant that can produce millions of doses is significantly shorter - less than two years. Moreover, the time that is required for the production of each vaccine cycle is considerably shorter than ...