Scientist explains how exactly Pfizer and Moderna vaccine work 

Human civilisation is almost at the end of the tunnel of this long going, exhausting and heart wrenching pandemic. The cumulative effort of producing a vaccine that can eradicate this respiratory disease has been the pivotal element behind this hope. 

The UK has already started distributing Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines since Tuesday, more vaccines are on their way of being available to us in a limited amount of time. People have countless amounts of mysteries, questions, confusion and stigma around this precious dose of medical wonder. 

The scientist behind experimental technology used by pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Moderna explained what will be baked into the first batch off the production line, in an exclusive report published by The Independent. 

Dr Drew Weissman, a professor in the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, pioneered the vaccine formula called Messenger RNA (mRNA) and collaborated with Pfizer and BioNTech on their version of the vaccine.

He told The Independent that the vaccine, unlike any that has been developed previously, contains a new technology that delivers genetic code - or directions - that instructs the body to create a copy of the Covid-19 virus protein, which prompts an immune response.

"The mRNA is produced by an enzyme that copies DNA that contains the protein to be produced," Weissman said.

"Four lipids are used to create the lipid nanoparticle that self-assemble with the mRNA. They are all created synthetically. The cationic lipid, which is the main function component is proprietary to companies."

Dr Weisman explains the Covid-19 vaccines contain only the synthetically created mRNA genetic code and four lipids, known as lipid nanoparticles, in contrast to traditional vaccines that are created within living cells and contain components of a virus.

"None of this is made in mammalian cell lines," he said.

The result is a 95 per cent effective vaccine with no safety concerns according to Pfizer and BioNTech, while Moderna says its version is 94.5 per cent effective.

Traditional vaccines contain an active component to generate an immune response, usually tiny fragments of the disease-causing organism in the form of a protein, as outlined by the World Health Organisation.

They also contain preservatives like 2-phenoxyethanol and stabilizers like sugars (lactose, sucrose), amino acids (glycine), gelatin, or proteins (recombinant human albumin, derived from yeast).

Surfactants, used in foods like ice cream, keep the ingredients together while residuals from the manufacturing process, like egg proteins, yeast or antibiotics, can be found in trace amounts.

They also use diluents like sterile water and adjuvant stimulate local immune cells, which can be aluminium salts like aluminium phosphate, aluminium hydroxide or potassium aluminium sulphate.

The experimental vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, technically called BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 respectively, are created synthetically using messenger Ribonucleic acid (or mRNA). RNA and DNA (Deoxyribonucleic) are nucleic acids that carry genetic instructions for creating life.

Rather than injecting an organic version of the virus to generate an immune response, mRNA contains snippets of the coronavirus spike protein's genetic code that tells body's cells to produce a small facsimile of that spike protein, which kickstarts the immune system to produce antibodies.
"This is done with the DNA that has a sequence that binds the enzyme and tells it to start working, followed by the sequence of the protein. There are other sequences that increase the amount and duration of protein production," Dr Weissman said.

"Our mRNA vaccine differs as one of the nucleotides, letters, is modified and that gets rid of the inflammatory potential of the mRNA."

What, exactly, the Covid vaccine is made of is a question of chemistry in the creation of that synthetic mRNA, which Weissman said is propriety information and would be buried in a complex web of patents.  

Neither Pfizer nor Moderna immediately responded to requests for a breakdown of the chemistry in BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273.

Paula Cannon, an associate professor of microbiology at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine, said that vaccine's developers have improved on natural RNA, which are short-lived and fragile.

"They can be made entirely synthetically, you don't need a biologist on board to make these you need a chemist," Cannon said.

"Part of the secret source of these vaccines is that the chemists have found a way to modify RNA and improve on what nature has developed to increase its stability and damp down its foreignness to the body. We don't want the body to freak out about this RNA that's been injected into it. So there's been some chemical modifications to make the RNA a bit more stealthy."

While the specificity of those chemical modifications isn't readily available, what is public is that the vaccines are encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles, a fatty covering to protect the fragile mRNA molecules.

Those lipids, also synthetically developed, were referenced in a July study published in a New England Journal of Medicine article analysing the Moderna phase one trial, which said "the lipid nanoparticle is comprised of four lipids".

While not any closer to a look inside the sausage factory, the published literature does further insight into how the mRNA and the lipid nanoparticles worth together to deliver the vaccine to the body.

"It's like a carrier and protective chemical that helps to package up and protect and help with the delivery of the RNA. That's often based on lipids made entirely chemically," Cannon said.

For Pfizer's vaccine, it needs to be stored at a temperature of at -94 degrees Fahrenheit to remain in that Goldilocks zone, while Moderna's vaccine needs to stay at -4 degrees Fahrenheit.

Researchers have been attempting to trick the body's immune system using mRNA for decades, and the Covid vaccines would be the first successful implementation since research began in the early 1990s.  

If approved by the FDA, they would not only make a huge impact on the Covid pandemic but would open the door to a whole line of vaccines for viruses like Herpes, HIV and the Flu.