Types of Vaccines: Whole Pathogen, Subunit and Nucleic Acid (mRNA & DNA)

This past year of the pandemic has brought with it much suffering, but it has also brought an amazing advancement in medical science. It will be the first vaccine that uses a form of nucleic acid, in this case, mRNA (messenger RNA).

Not only will this vaccine bring the world out of the shadow of COVID-19, but it will also open the door to a myriad of other healthcare developments.

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First, an overview of how vaccines work. Your body is naturally good at defending itself against intruders such as bacterias and viruses. In fact, you are exposed to thousands each day. If any make it through your first line of defense, your immune system takes action.

A virus is called an antigen. It alerts your immune system to create antibodies, which kill the virus or render it ineffective. Depending on the virus, these antibodies, once triggered, stay effective for months, years, and often a lifetime.

A vaccine works by tricking the body into creating these protective antibodies, without the body needing to get sick.

Traditional or classic vaccines use a method referred to as Whole Pathogen. They use the entire virus, either inactivated (dead) or attenuated (weakened) form.

Another type of vaccine is called Subunit. It uses only part of the virus.

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The newest form of vaccine and the type used for COVID-19 is a Nucleic Acid vaccine, which uses either DNA or mRNA (messenger RNA). This genetic material tells the cells to manufacture the virus or a portion of it. The COVID-19 vaccine uses mRNA that creates just the spike protein that is found on the coronavirus. Our immune system will create antibodies that then attack the coronavirus since it is covered in these spike proteins.

It is the first nucleic acid vaccine ever approved and in use. It is certainly laying the groundwork for many other vaccines to help rid humanity of other diseases.

Without this worldwide health crisis bringing focus and a global collaborative effort, it may have taken many years or even decades for Medicine to have advanced to this point.