COVID

Question 1

effectiveness of mRNA covid vaccines

Answer 1

The most popular type of Covid-19 vaccine is the RNA vaccine, which is a type of vaccine comprised of a segment of the viruses RNA (in this case it encodes for the spike proteins), which are delivered via lipid nanoparticles. The mRNA is delivered to the cytoplasm where it will be translated by the cell. The viral proteins will be expressed on its surface, which will trigger the immune response.
- Induces strong immune response
- T cell response

Question 2

How are antibodies made

Answer 2

Rats are injected with the antigen of interested, and their antibody producing B cells are isolated. To stop them from dying too quickly, they are hybridised with myeloma cells (cancer cells) -> hybridoma cells
Take single cells and culture them on their own, making monoclonal antibodies
Humanise antibody by grafting variable regions to human antibodies

Question 3

DNA vaccine

Answer 3

involves bombarding the skin with high pressure DNA in the hopes that the DNA will enter the nucleus and be transcribed into RNA, then proteins
The benefit of DNA vaccines is that they are stable under refrigerator conditions, unlike RNA vaccines