Select the true statements about mRNA vaccines. Select all tha...

Question

Select the true statements about mRNA vaccines. Select all that apply. (NCLEX/HESI/TEAS)

a. These vaccines contain a type of nucleic acid.

b. These vaccines can alter cellular DNA.

c. These vaccines often require a booster dose.

d. These vaccines do not require adjuvants.

e. These vaccines require an engineered virus to deliver the mRNA to a target cell.

Accepted Answer

Well, everyone, let's take a look at the next question. Which of the following vaccines guides cells to generate antigens which in turn initiate an immune response using genetic material from the target pathogen. A inactivated vaccine. BMRN A vaccine. See Toxoid vaccine, D viral vector vaccine or E subunit vaccine. We note that the description here of this process is a little different from what we're often used to thinking of vaccines, how we're often used to thinking of vaccines and the process by which they work. In this case, the vaccine causes the cells themselves to generate the antigens. So the vaccine contains genetic material and then after vaccination, the cells make the protein encoded by that material. After which the body then raises an immune response to that protein. Now I say protein just because I'm talking about the process of translation from for instance, MRN A, but it won't be say the entire, an entire protein necessarily found in the pathogen. You're trying to vaccinate against. You want to be careful that you're not actually creating something that will cause harm or symptoms of the disease. So it might be a portion, a characteristic portion of a protein uh in the COVID vaccine, the vaccines were aiming at the spike protein that's characteristic of that SARS CO V two virus. So this is different from the vaccines where you are injecting a portion of say a protein that coats the vac the virus or you're injecting an inactivated virus. Basically, you're injecting the antigen itself. So let's look at our answer choices to see which we would want, we do have the clue of the name that will lead us to choice BMRN A vaccine. Obviously, MRN A is genetic material. However, choice D viral vector, viral vectors also uh put genetic material in the person or animal being vaccinated. But the genetic material is delivered by a viral vector, which would be a harmless virus that's used to kind of a as viruses do deliver its contents to the cells of the body. So the answer to our question here will be choice B because if the problem wanted to describe the use of a viral vector to do this, it would have to specify that. So that's why choice D is wrong. Even though it's another method of using genetic material to cause the body to make its own antigen. For this process. We'll look briefly at our other answer. Choices. Choice. A inactivated vaccine uses a dead or inactive version of a pathogen as the antigen, you inject a version of the pathogen, whether killed or made so that it can't cause disease that won't cause the disease itself but is very successful at generating an immune response against that particular pathogen. These are very effective vaccines in terms of generating long term immunity. But obviously, especially in the case of an inactivated version, have a slightly higher risk of actually causing the disease. Um if something went wrong, but choice A is not what our question is describing. To see a toxoid vaccine is one that causes an immune response, not against the pathogen itself, but against the toxin it produces. So it uses a modified version of the toxin produced by the pathogen. You're vaccinating against, obviously, the toxin is modified so that it is nontoxic when injected into the person. And this would be the case for diseases where it's the toxin produced by say the bacteria that causes all the health issues. So for instance, the tetanus vaccine, but it's not what's described in our question. So cross that out and then Joyce E subunit vaccine again, directly introduces the antigen that you want the immune response to. But this antigen will be for instance, a sub unit of a characteristic protein on the pathogen enough, so that the body will recognize this particular pathogen just by that characteristic subunit. But here you have no risk of causing the disease. You don't have a complete pathogen. Just this portion of, for instance, a protein on its outside. Another candidate for a portion of something characteristic for this type of vaccine is a portion of a polysaccharide um on a particular pathogen. But at any rate uses something that allows an immune response that will attack the pathogen but has zero risk of causing a disease, but not what our question is describing. So, not our answer. So once again, what we're focusing on when we think about something that guides the cells to create antigens using genetic material is an MRN A vaccine where you're actually injecting the MRN A itself, that's going to be the instructions to create the molecule that's going to generate the immune response. So choice, BMRN A vaccine is our answer to the vaccines that initiate an immune response based on an antigen created by the cells themselves from this genetic material. See you in the next video.

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