A new vaccine platform that harnesses the power of genetics has been thrust into the public eye as the success of Modernas coronavirus vaccine continues to grow, which if proven safe and effective, would be the first of its kind.

Theres never been a successful vaccine developed this way before, so it would be very, very novel, which is exciting, but potentially risky, said Dr. Helen Boucher, chief of the division of geographic medicine and infectious diseases at Tufts Medical Center.

Messenger ribonucleic acid, or mRNA, is a chemical readout of DNA that can be transferred into cells to make proteins.

Dr. Mark Poznansky, director of the Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, compared DNA to delivery of information to the immune system from a book about coronavirus, and RNA to a chapter or two about it.

You are fundamentally engineering the cells in your body to make a foreign protein from the virus that your immune system can then react to, said Poznansky.

The mRNA vaccine encodes proteins of a virus, which are inserted into a cell to trigger an immune response.

Cambridge-based company Modernas mRNA coronavirus vaccine is highly regarded by health experts and was created at lightning speed after the virus sequence was released.

The companys stock has soared and the vaccine attracted the attention of the public and top health officials alike.

The vaccine has shown positive results in early participants of its Phase 1 study and after two doses, all participants showed binding antibody levels and neutralizing antibody levels that were at or above those who have recovered from coronavirus, according to Moderna.

There are several other mRNA coronavirus vaccines in development, such as one from Pfizer and German company BioNTech and another developed by PharmaJet and Tawainese company Abnova that uses needle-free technology.

If any make it past Phase 3 studies and onto consumers, it would be a major breakthrough, not just for the coronavirus pandemic, but for accelerated vaccine development in general, said Poznansky.

We always need more platforms that generate effective vaccines and having an additional one based on mRNA would be a great advantage, said Poznansky.

He added, If it turned out to be safe and effective in Phase 3 studies, that would be enormous success.

But making it to Phase 3 is pretty rare, said Poznansky, and safety is key in vaccine development.

In many ways we are very, very early on in this very accelerated process of multiple platforms going after a target and I think thats our biggest advantage at this point, there are lots of horses in the race, said Poznansky.

A report published in Nature Research Journal said the mRNA vaccine field is developing quickly and the technology offers a lot of positives.

mRNA is non-infectious, can be administered repeatedly and modifications can make it stable and highly translatable, the report states.

The vaccines have potential for rapid, cheap scalability, as well, the paper said.

Many drugs, therapies and interventions are being developed to combat the coronavirus crisis, but a vaccine will make the ultimate impact.

To really impact disease on a global level we are going to need a vaccine, said Boucher.

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mRNA vaccines could provide a breakthrough for coronavirus and other illness - Boston Herald