Covid: Promises of an RNA Messenger

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Epidemics are a scourge of humanity, but they are also an opportunity to make health and scientific leaps forward. This is the case of Covid-19 that has made it possible to generalize messenger RNA technology into major developed vaccines. Can it change medicine? Some say so. The messenger RNA technology consists of immunizing not with the protein of the virus but with instructions for making that protein.

Schematically, our body then receives it as a model that trains the immune system to recognize the virus, and thus fight it. However, technology scares some people even if a massive vaccination campaign shows no risk to the genome. The disinformation virus is wreaking havoc in the epidemic. Vaccine discovery was very rapid, and there may have been a lack of pedagogy in the population.

Hopes

The technology, however, is not modern. Messenger RNA research has been going on for 25 years. It took until 2013 to find the vector to transfer it to human cells. Since then, it was first used in 2015 for a flu vaccine and in 2016 against Zika. After being widely used in the fight against Covid-19, its applications against some types of cancer or AIDS are now on the research lab benches. But the road may be long, while this new treatment is very expensive.

La Story is a podcast from Les Echos presented by Pierrick Fay. This episode was taped in January 2022. Editor-in-chief: Clemence Lemister. Guests: Catherine Ducroet (pharmaceutical specialist at Les Echos), Alexandre Minion (Professor of Anesthesia and Resuscitation at Bichat Hospital) and Chantal Pichon (researcher at the CNRS Molecular Biophysics Center in Orleans). Directed by: Willie Jean. Music: Theo Bollinger. Graphic identity: Upian. Photo: iStock. Votes: CNN, MinSaludCol, Euronews, RMC, Les Nuls “Les Chercheurs”, Topito, Franceinfo, Sydo Pédago.

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