Decoding Moderna’s Covid-19 Vaccine Ingredients
A closer look at the ingredient list for Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine reveals a simple product safe for human use.
Recent reports found that Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccine is over 94% effective against Covid-19 infection. This news is a bright spot in what has been a dark and challenging year.
Now that the vaccine is set to be rolled out, let’s take a look at the ingredient list.
The Basics
Moderna’s mRNA-1273 is an mRNA vaccine made up of strands of RNA packed into lipid nanoparticles. These particles, when injected into the human body will fuse to the cell membrane of human cells and allow the mRNA to gain access to the machinery needed to translate it into viral proteins. Once these proteins are generated, they are packed by the native vesicles within our own cells and released outside of the cell.
Once the viral proteins are released our immune system has the opportunity to generate antibodies against them.
Lipid Nanoparticle Technology
If the mRNA is the “message” of the vaccine, the lipid nanoparticle is the “envelope.” Lipid nanoparticles are created in the image of our own cell membranes, allowing them to…
