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Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs

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Re: Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs

#211

Post by valarauko »

lemonspat wrote: post #209

A few weeks ago, I looked for info on how the mRNA itself is produced/created in these vaccines, but couldn't find the answer. Does anyone know?

"Therapeutic mRNA is typically synthesized using in vitro transcription (IVT) with single-subunit polymerases (e.g., T7, T3, and SP6) using a DNA template to produce multiple copies of the coded mRNA. T7 RNA polymerase can incorporate chemically modified nucleotide triphosphates (NTP), particularly uridine modifications, which have been shown to maintain translational efficiency and alter the interactions between exogenous mRNA and TLR7, TLR8, and RIG-I (20)"

* [Impact of mRNA chemistry and manufacturing process on innate immune activation | Science Advances](https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/26/eaaz6893)

Re: Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs

#212

Post by valarauko »

dillondoyle wrote: post #110
CryptoPunk wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to be clear, a vaccine doesn't cure a disease. It prevents one from contracting it.

Getting to the parent comment though it's amazing how far we've come in that we already do have virtually 100% affective prevention from medicine. PrEP and the knowledge that non-detectible = non-transmissible. I've been re-watching Queer as Folk which isn't that old and it's crazy how aged it feels because we've made so much progress over the last 10 years. BTW amazing show if anyone hasn't seen - wish you could get…

QAF (US) was amazing - got them on DVD, and was the only way I could watch them ~ 15 years ago.

For what its worth, PrEP is not without its own costs. Besides the documented side effects, it also seems to rapidly accelerate cellular aging.

Re: Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs

#213

Post by valarauko »

koheripbal wrote: post #148
GuB-42 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some vaccines are also cures. In the case of HIV, the problem is not that the body is unable to properly respond to the disease, the initial infection is usually benign and the immune system produce the antibodies necessary to fight it, that's what being HIV+ means. Problem is, HIV mutates so quickly that the immune system is essentially playing whack-a-mole and cannot eradicate the virus completely. A vaccine that i…

HIV does not mutate in the body. Viruses mutate over tens of thousands or millions of patients. It does not evolve within the space of a single person's infection and does not use mutation to evade the immune system.

Here's an old article highlighting escape mutations evolving within the span of a single person's infection.

* [HIV evolution: CTL escape mutation and reversion after transmission - PubMed](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14770175/)

Re: Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs

#214

Post by deskamess »

credit_guy wrote: post #141

One of these is for the little known Nipah virus. This virus is really scary. Like the Coronavirus, it jumps to humans from bats. Unlike the Coronavirus, it is extremely lethal. In the last outbreak, in 2018 [1], the case fatality rate was 89%. Fortunately, there were only 19 cases (17 died). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Nipah_virus_outbreak_in_K...

They made a movie about it : Virus[1] on Amazon Prime.

Unfortunately due to flashbacks, which introduce non-linearity, it may be difficult for those who are not native speakers to follow through the movie. The problem is no obvious visual highlighting indicating that a scene was a flashback (like going black and white). Otherwise a really solid watch.

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8941440/

Re: Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs

#215

Post by credit_guy »

tkinom wrote: post #197
credit_guy wrote: post #141

One of these is for the little known Nipah virus. This virus is really scary. Like the Coronavirus, it jumps to humans from bats. Unlike the Coronavirus, it is extremely lethal. In the last outbreak, in 2018 [1], the case fatality rate was 89%. Fortunately, there were only 19 cases (17 died). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Nipah_virus_outbreak_in_K...

It happened so infrequently. How are they plan to test the vaccine on people?

The announcement states that only the other 2 vaccines will start Phase 1 trials in 2021, and is silent on Phase 1 trials on the Nipah vaccine. There's development work before that though: in vitro trials and trials on animal models. Depending on the outcomes, they can move to Phase 1 trials, where, just like they did for the Covid vaccine, they'll look at the safety (i.e. if there are side-effects) and the immune response (how many antibodies, and what type of T-cell and B-cell response there is). If they do that, they would be in a position to quickly proceed to Phase 2/3 trials in case there's an outbreak anywhere in the world.

Re: Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs

#216

Post by ahelwer »

StavrosK wrote: post #210
ahelwer wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And in turn this misses that chronic lyme has become a catch-all self diagnosis people have for chronic medical problems with no clear cause. There is not really much evidence to believe it is a real thing.

To clarify, you're saying we don't know whether Lyme disease is real?

Lyme disease is different from chronic lyme disease. The latter has little evidence.

Re: Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs

#217

Post by szatkus »

high_density wrote: post #179
jfengel wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HIV is one of the three new programs in this announcement. So yes, that's precisely what they're hoping. (Pedantry: HIV is the virus that causes the disease AIDS. The goal is to prevent AIDS by vaccinating against HIV. It's unlikely that the vaccine would be able to help patients who already have AIDS.)

damn I have a habit of only reading HN comments and guessing what the article is about

Heh, I do the same for sites that have overrly aggresive GDPR-wall. Headline and comments are usually enough.

Re: Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs

#218

Post by justin66 »

chanmad29 wrote: post #171
credit_guy wrote: post #141

One of these is for the little known Nipah virus. This virus is really scary. Like the Coronavirus, it jumps to humans from bats. Unlike the Coronavirus, it is extremely lethal. In the last outbreak, in 2018 [1], the case fatality rate was 89%. Fortunately, there were only 19 cases (17 died). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Nipah_virus_outbreak_in_K...

I'd assume fowl to be much more common carriers but why are bats always the ones? Is there something glaring that I am missing?

Bats get around (they can fly!) and they're mammals, so the viruses they carry are somewhat compatible with us. Not that birds aren't also virus spreaders (West Nile, etc.).

There's much more to it, of course.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/why-do-bats-have-so-m...

Re: Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs

#219

Post by dillondoyle »

valarauko wrote: post #212
dillondoyle wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting to the parent comment though it's amazing how far we've come in that we already do have virtually 100% affective prevention from medicine. PrEP and the knowledge that non-detectible = non-transmissible. I've been re-watching Queer as Folk which isn't that old and it's crazy how aged it feels because we've made so much progress over the last 10 years. BTW amazing show if anyone hasn't seen - wish you could get…

QAF (US) was amazing - got them on DVD, and was the only way I could watch them ~ 15 years ago. For what its worth, PrEP is not without its own costs. Besides the documented side effects, it also seems to rapidly accelerate cellular aging.

I have the DVDs too. It's worth the lower quality just for the music. Some of the most powerful scenes are deeply tied to the nusic for me, dancing at prom, Brian's bowling, the first episode, so many more - the replacement 'music' they hacked together is horrible too...

Wow i didn't know the cellular aging part thank you. Do you have anymore info? I'm on it (or was when I could actually be around humans ;( )

The biggest downside I know about is the cost. It's insane even though i have really great insurance. Gilead does reimburse but it takes like 6 weeks or more. A low income person can't be out almost 2k for that long. Medicade/care is also a pain especially those most at risk, IV users, etc. Hopefully I've heard it goes generic soon.

I feel like we are 5-15 years away from being able to eradicate or relegate sadly to the developing world only.

Re: Moderna is announcing three new vaccine programs

#220

Post by heavyset_go »

dhnajsjdnd wrote: post #42
abiogenesis wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't know about PrEP, but from what I've just read it has to be taken daily in order to be effective. A vaccine could be a safer method.

I agree it would be better in the end after it’s approved. I’m thinking about getting the ethics board to allow a trial where you have to give half of the participants a control (and the other half a possibly-ineffective vaccine), when a known-good alternative exists. The other reply has a solid point. Maybe you can find a country where it’s not possible to distribute daily PrEP, but is possible to vaccinate people a…

They solved the ethics problem by offering trial participants PrEP for free for the duration of the trials.

Some people who start the trial not taking PrEP will also continue the trial without taking the PrEP they're offered and educated about for free.

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