What is the latest technology that makes these big pharmaceutical companies in Europe and America prefer to offend the president of the United States rather than let it go? Tesla founder Musk said, Can humans really be turned into butterflies by it? Today, let's talk about this famous mRNA.
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We know that the COVID-19 vaccine produced in Pfizer, USA adopts the latest mRNA technology, and it is said that the effective rate of the vaccine reaches 94%. What exactly is this mRNA? Its Chinese name is "messenger RNA", and the "messenger" here means postman. What does this postman deliver?
Well, except for a few body fluids such as bile, the human body is made of protein, even teeth, bones and hair are no exception. At the same time, there are many kinds of protein that make up the human body. According to research, there are millions of species.
Each protein synthesis has its own "secret recipe", which is commonly known as genetic information. These secret recipes are preserved in human genes just like the instructions to make protein. Messenger RNA (mRNA) is to copy these secret recipes into genes, and then, like a postman, deliver them to a "factory" specializing in the production of protein to guide the synthesis of protein.
Here, I briefly describe the synthesis process of protein, which is beneficial to the later development.
There is a substance called ribonucleic acid (RNA) in human cells. There are many kinds, which are mainly used to synthesize protein, among which three are the most important.
The first one is called messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), which was just introduced. It is responsible for copying protein's "production instructions" from genes, and the technical term is transcription.
The second type is called transRNA, which mainly transports the raw materials (amino acids) needed to synthesize protein.
The third type, called ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA), is the site of the "factory" for synthesizing protein.
Here's the process. Ribosomal RNA will first combine with messenger RNA to read the copied genetic code information, and then select the corresponding amino acids sent by the transfer RNA according to different code contents, so as to turn these single amino acid molecules into a long chain (polypeptide chain), and then twist, bend and fold multiple chains to finally become various protein needed by human body.
You should also see that "messenger RNA" is the key to the whole process. No matter what template it provides, the "factory" will produce that type of protein.
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What does this messenger RNA have to do with vaccines?
This is because the human immune system is very sensitive to foreign protein. Because the main component of bacteria and viruses is protein, immune cells will attack and destroy the unknown protein once they find it and judge it harmful.
Here is a sentence. It is usually accurate for the immune system to judge whether it is harmful, because people need to absorb foreign protein to get nutrition and energy. However, if some people's immune system is defective and can't accurately judge and identify the useful protein as a harmful substance, then immune cells will produce a large number of antibodies to attack these protein, and the result is an allergic reaction in the body. For example, some people are allergic to milk and eggs, and there is something wrong with the immune system. They don't recognize these foreign proteins and have random attacks.
To continue the previous topic, vaccine is the principle that immune cells can identify virus proteins and produce corresponding antibodies.
The original vaccine technology is to kill the virus, make it lose its activity, and only keep the protein structure, and then make a vaccine and inject it into the human body. When immune cells find these foreign proteins, they will produce a large number of antibodies to attack and remove these harmless dead viruses. At the same time, the antibodies produced will also exist in the human body for a long time. If you are really infected with this virus one day, because the targeted antibodies in the body can play a role immediately and kill the virus in the cradle. This is the principle of inactivated vaccine, which has been used for more than 200 years since it was invented at the end of 19.
In the 265,438+0th century, genetic science developed rapidly. In 1990s, scientists found that the cells in mice could produce their own protein by injecting synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA) into them.
The whole scientific community is sensational, because in theory, this is equivalent to moving the whole vaccine factory into human cells.
Since we only need inactivated virus proteins, there is no need to start by cultivating viruses. Just compile the virus protein gene directly into messenger RNA and inject it into the body to teach human cells how to make this protein, which can also achieve the effect of activating antibodies.
The biggest advantage of this is that it greatly saves the research and development time of vaccines. Because the biggest problem of inactivated vaccine is to produce enough viruses and inactivate them, which takes a lot of time, while messenger RNA vaccine only needs to know the gene sequence of virus protein and then compile it like programming.
All the reasons are understood, but it took 30 years to finally realize vaccine production. The main problem is that the synthetic messenger RNA, just injected into the body, is judged as foreign harmful substances by the immune system and directly excluded.
Until 2005, someone discovered the method of "modifying mRNA" and solved this problem. The specific principle is too professional to explain.
China is also very strong in this field. China's mRNA COVID-19 vaccine has started phase III clinical trials in Mexico this month.
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I won't take many medicines in the future. Every cell in the body is a "pharmaceutical factory" and can synthesize the required substances by itself.
For example, heart disease can damage a certain tissue of the heart. Originally, it was necessary to take medicine to recuperate slowly, and then give an injection directly, so that the cells there could synthesize the needed protein by themselves and repair the damage quickly. This has been tested on mice and proved to be feasible.
According to this idea, some people even imagine that by extracting some of their own organs and tissues, they can synthesize their own transplantable organs in vitro, and for broken limbs, they can also grow back in this way, so Tesla President Musk said with emotion, "The future of medicine is mRNA. Basically, you can cure everything with mRNA ... you can actually become a butterfly. "
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As he said, can people really become butterflies one day?
There is a concept that needs to be explained here, that is, what is the difference between DNA and genes. Taking humans as an example, human DNA consists of nearly 3 billion base pairs, which can be simply understood as the most basic structure of DNA.
There are 3 billion base pairs in DNA, only a tiny part of which constitutes about 25,000 human genes, and each gene can synthesize a specific protein. (In fact, it is now found that one gene can synthesize several kinds of protein).
Generally speaking, a gene is a DNA sequence that can synthesize protein. Now it is found that genes only account for 2% of the whole DNA sequence. The remaining 98% of DNA, except a small part of which has been identified for regulating genes, is mostly unknown, so scientists call it "junk DNA".
All living things on the earth, including human beings, have evolved from marine life step by step. We are all ancestors, so most genes are the same. The year before last, the American Gene Research Institute published the genome of puffer fish, and compared with the human genome, it was found that 75% of the genes were the same. The remaining 25% actually determines the huge difference between people and puffer fish. It is also reported that the genetic similarity between humans and bananas is 60%, which is unbelievable.
Back to the topic of butterflies, we know that butterflies have two forms. They are caterpillars when they are young and become butterflies when they are adults. How did they do it?
I see. In fact, there is no mystery. Butterflies have only one set of DNA, but they can turn on and off certain genes through regulation. In the early days, the gene representing insect morphology was turned on, while the gene representing butterfly morphology was turned off. When you come of age, it's the other way around.
Therefore, in theory, in the future when biotechnology is highly developed, it is indeed possible to change the human form by changing the genome. But this is not the best way, because from the current research, the role of genes belongs to a long-term mechanism, even permanent, that is to say, it is difficult to change genes into butterflies and then become people again.
However, messenger RNA (mRNA) is different. Its essence is to teach cells to synthesize any kind of protein, even if this kind of protein does not belong to human beings, just as the mRNA vaccine teaches human cells to synthesize the virus in protein. At the same time, the half-life of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) is very short, that is, after a few hours, the mRNA will decompose, and the process of synthesizing protein will be over. So in the future, by synthesizing messenger RNA, people can become butterflies and fish in a short time ... just like the seventy-two changes in the Monkey King.
Of course, these are just scientific fantasies, but human dreams, as long as there is a scientific basis, often will eventually come true. Now, after the breakthrough of mRNA vaccine technology, the research in this field has made rapid progress. At present, the focus of research has been how to control the amount of protein synthesized by a single mRNA and how to make designated cells synthesize protein. Therefore, it seems that the day when Tesla President Musk expects people to become butterflies is not out of reach.