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Review
. 2021 Nov 17;9(11):1345.
doi: 10.3390/vaccines9111345.

The Importance of RNA-Based Vaccines in the Fight against COVID-19: An Overview

Bruna Aparecida Souza Machado  1 , Katharine Valéria Saraiva Hodel  1 , Larissa Moraes Dos Santos Fonseca  1 , Luís Alberto Brêda Mascarenhas  1 , Leone Peter Correia da Silva Andrade  1 , Vinícius Pinto Costa Rocha  1 , Milena Botelho Pereira Soares  1   2 , Peter Berglund  3 , Malcolm S Duthie  3 , Steven G Reed  3 , Roberto Badaró  1
Affiliations
Review

The Importance of RNA-Based Vaccines in the Fight against COVID-19: An Overview

Bruna Aparecida Souza Machado et al. Vaccines (Basel). .

Abstract

In recent years, vaccine development using ribonucleic acid (RNA) has become the most promising and studied approach to produce safe and effective new vaccines, not only for prophylaxis but also as a treatment. The use of messenger RNA (mRNA) as an immunogenic has several advantages to vaccine development compared to other platforms, such as lower coast, the absence of cell cultures, and the possibility to combine different targets. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of mRNA as a vaccine became more relevant; two out of the four most widely applied vaccines against COVID-19 in the world are based on this platform. However, even though it presents advantages for vaccine application, mRNA technology faces several pivotal challenges to improve mRNA stability, delivery, and the potential to generate the related protein needed to induce a humoral- and T-cell-mediated immune response. The application of mRNA to vaccine development emerged as a powerful tool to fight against cancer and non-infectious and infectious diseases, for example, and represents a relevant research field for future decades. Based on these advantages, this review emphasizes mRNA and self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) for vaccine development, mainly to fight against COVID-19, together with the challenges related to this approach.

Keywords: COVID-19; RNA vaccines; SARS-CoV-2; mRNA vaccines; saRNA vaccines.

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Conflict of interest statement

P.B., M.S.D. and S.G.R. have an equity interest in HDT Bio. B.A.S.M., K.V.S.H.; L.M.d.S.F., L.A.B.M., L.P.C.d.S.A., V.P.C.R., M.B.P.S. and R.B. declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overview of mRNA and saRNA-based vaccine mechanisms for protein production. Adapted from Maruggi et al. [104]. GoI, gene of interest; MHC, major histocompatibility complex; nsPs, nonstructural proteins. Created with BioRender.com (accessed on 30 September 2021).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Perspectives and challenges for RNA-based vaccines for COVID-19. Created with BioRender.com (accessed on 30 September 2021).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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