01/12/2022
A short while ago someone asked me if the vaccine changes our DNA. I told them no I didn't think it does but then realized I couldn't explain how it actually works so I turned to a good friend and relative, Richard Weinberg, who knows a lot about how these vaccines work. He's a professor and researcher in the Department of Cell Biology at UNC Chapel Hill. His wife is also a scientist and principal investigator in Biostatistics and Computational Biology at a branch of NIH. She is vaccinated and told me straight up that if the vaccine changed our DNA she wouldn't take it.
Richard told me, "The vaccine is mRNA-based. mRNA makes protein. These mRNA vaccines can be said to
"hack"the body's normal operations, which use DNA to make mRNA.
mRNA does not make DNA, nor does it influence DNA."
He then went on to explain how normal cells function. To understand more deeply, keep reading.
"Human cells are tiny bags of protein-rich cytoplasm, surrounded by a lipid bilayer called the plasma membrane. Inside the cytoplasm lies the nucleus, where the cell's DNA is stored. DNA, the genetic material, is very stable and quite inactive. Each cell contains 46 molecules of DNA, representing the 46 chromosomes. The entire (huge) DNA molecule duplicates once, when the cell divides, so that each daughter cell gets a full copy. Otherwise, most of the DNA molecule just ...sits, folded into a compact package. However, the cell often "consults" small portions of DNA that code for proteins. In this process, that piece of DNA is somewhat unfolded and used by the cell's machinery to construct a working template out of RNA, a closely-related molecule that's much less stable. These protein-coding templates are called "messenger RNA," or mRNA.
mRNA manufactured in the nucleus according to DNA specifications is then shipped out to the cytoplasm, where ribosomes (complex protein factories) read the mRNA molecule, which provides a blueprint for a specific protein. mRNA is unstable, lasting usually less than a day. In the mammalian cell, DNA can be used to make DNA or mRNA. mRNA is used to make protein. And protein makes the cell work. It goes in one direction, not the other.
The new vaccines are tiny lipid-coated particles of mRNA whose chemistry has been slightly modified to be more stable (lasting probably several days within a cell), and more attractive to ribosomes. When the vaccine is injected into a muscle, the lipid protects the mRNA while allowing it to cross the cell membrane. Besides allowing entry, the lipid is an immunogenic substance that primes the immune system to be on the outlook for trouble.
Once the vaccine mRNA enters the cell, it hooks up with a ribosome which starts pumping out a single protein like crazy, making many thousands of copies before the mRNA degrades and stops the process. This so-called "S" (or "Spike") protein is the one that sticks out from the virus particles in the pictures you may have seen, and it's what enables the virus to invade human cells, though S by itself is not infective. Over the next few days and weeks, the body's immune system goes nuts making antibodies to this alien S protein. During the early stages of this process, the vaccine recipient will get a sore arm and may get the generalized immune reaction common to all viral infections (fever, headache, feeling tired, etc.) A special part of the immune system has a long memory, and will remember S even after antibody levels decline, allowing the body to mount a rapid defense against possible future invasions by Covid-19."
Pretty heady stuff. Here is a video I found that was also vetted that might be easier to understand.
https://www.chop.edu/video/how-mrna-vaccines-work
mRNA does not
