India’s first indigenous mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccine technology has been developed by the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to fight COVID-19.
Among the major vaccine technologies available today to fight COVID-19, mRNA vaccines are the best.
The world first saw the power of mRNA vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccines work by training our immune system to identify disease-causing microorganisms and eliminate them quickly when we encounter them later.
This is achieved with mRNA vaccine technology by introducing the mRNA of the microbe of concern.
In host cells, this mRNA gives rise to a microbial protein, or a part of it, that trains the immune system to avoid it if there is an actual infection with the same living microorganism.
CSIR-Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) is leading the development of mRNA vaccine technology in India.
It has now announced the development of a potential mRNA vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2.
The mRNA vaccine technology is indigenous and there is no technical contribution from anywhere. The team from Atal Incubation Center-CCMB (AIC-CCMB) led the development of the vaccine candidate.
“We observed strong immune responses against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in mice, upon administration of two doses of mRNA. The anti-spike antibodies generated were found to be more than 90% efficient in preventing the binding of the human ACE2 receptor to the coronavirus,” said Dr Rajesh Iyer, a scientist involved in the project.
Currently, the mRNA vaccine candidate is undergoing preclinical challenge studies to evaluate its efficacy to protect against live virus infection.
What do experts say
“The current war with the COVID-19 pandemic has brought many vaccine technologies to light, and India’s vaccine program is greatly appreciated. However, we lack a powerful mRNA vaccine technology developed by Moderna or Pfizer/BioNtech to combat COVID-19 in the US and Europe. The technology developed is different from the mRNA vaccine being developed by Genoa Bio, which is based on self-replicating RNA,” said Dr Madhusudan Rao, CEO, AIC-CCM.
He added that the AIC-CCMB team has been able to establish mRNA vaccine technology and develop a homegrown mRNA vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2 in less than a year since the inception of the project.
Even as Covid-19 is easing, the vaccine platform holds promise for many of the infectious diseases facing India.
“This is a proof-of-principle show that we can replicate mRNA vaccine technology end-to-end. The beauty of this technology lies in its modularity and rapid change in time. This means that with significantly less efforts, the developed technology can be used to develop vaccines for other infectious diseases like dengue, tuberculosis or malaria,” said Dr Vinay Nandikuri, Director, CCMB.
He also said that CSIR, Ministry of Science and Technology, India’s largest R&D organization has taken scientific initiatives to build capacity within India in modern health technologies as part of its program on self-reliance.