Reacción a "Reactions: Nobel Prize in Physiology awarded to Karikó and Weissman for their discoveries that led to the development of effective mRNA vaccines against covid-19"

The complex information contained in our genes (DNA) needs to be processed in an intermediate step (RNA) before being converted into the final products that are expressed in cells. Injecting this RNA to achieve a therapeutic effect was an idea put forward in the early 1990s, but there were two major problems: RNA is highly unstable and, above all, it provokes a rapid and potent immune reaction that quickly destroys it, making its therapeutic application unfeasible.

In 2005, Karikó and Weissman made the extraordinary discovery that by making small modifications to the structure of RNA, it was no longer immunogenic, so it was not destroyed by the immune system and could be used in many therapeutic strategies. In addition to this seminal discovery, initially received with scepticism by the scientific community, Karikó and Weissman made important advances in methods for its purification and administration, opening a new era in the treatment of diseases such as cancer and the prevention of infectious diseases, due to its safety, speed of production and low cost. An extraordinary discovery.