{"id":24865,"date":"2020-05-18T10:30:56","date_gmt":"2020-05-18T17:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=24865"},"modified":"2020-05-18T10:30:56","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T17:30:56","slug":"preventing-the-next-pandemic-mrna-vaccines-and-sirna-oligo-therapies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=24865","title":{"rendered":"Preventing the Next Pandemic: mRNA Vaccines and siRNA oligo Therapies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
by Jake Adams, Project Manager at CRB<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Friday, May 15, 2020 – 10:30am<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Originally published by CRB<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

Investing in promising new pharmaceutical platforms like oligonucleotide therapies could reduce the gap between first detection and total eradication in future\u00a0pandemics.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The battle against our current pandemic is playing out in multiple arenas: in government assemblies, lawmakers are\u00a0issuing travel bans<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0dusting off ancient quarantine legislation<\/a>\u00a0to control the disease\u2019s spread. In local communities, neighbors are avoiding contact under the auspices of social distancing.\u00a0Distilleries are producing hand sanitizer<\/a>,\u00a0clothing manufacturers are making PPE<\/a>, and\u00a0clandestine online groups are crowdsourcing new ventilator\u00a0designs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Collectively, these efforts should be applauded and will help to keep us protected while the pharmaceutical world closes in on vaccines. But at what cost? Travel bans, mass quarantines, and social distancing are often insufficient and difficult to enforce\u2014and we\u2019ve seen what they do to the global economy<\/a>. These are blunt tools that leave heavy scarring and are sure to have lasting impacts after the virus has run its\u00a0course.<\/p>\n

We have to do better than that. To me, a \u201cbetter\u201d response doesn\u2019t mean, \u201cLet\u2019s get ready for the next pandemic.\u201d It means, \u201cLet\u2019s prevent pandemics altogether.\u201d Let\u2019s leave those blunt tools to the history books and invest instead in the promising new pharmaceutical platforms that could reduce the gap between first detection and total\u00a0eradication.<\/p>\n

A new response: mRNA vaccines and siRNA oligo\u00a0therapies<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many leading pharmaceutical companies are pouring resources into the development of traditional live-attenuated or inactive vaccines against\u00a0SARS-CoV-2<\/a>, which could lead to the cure our world needs. These are mature, well-understood therapeutic platforms that have already spared countless people from deadly infectious diseases. The downside? It can take\u00a0anywhere from 18 months to three years (or more)<\/a>\u00a0to develop a safe and effective \u201clive viral\u201d vaccine, and\u00a0another several years<\/a>\u00a0to build and license a manufacturing facility capable of producing the billions of doses that we\u2019ll need. Although regulators and drug companies are working together to accelerate that timeline as much as possible, there\u2019s only so much speed that we can expect from a platform that depends on culturing cells and must demonstrate efficacy and safety with each new\u00a0application.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, two new kids in town are attracting a\u00a0lot of serious attention and excitement<\/a>: mRNA vaccines and siRNA oligo therapies. These modalities are so new, in fact, that no mRNA vaccine has ever advanced to commercial production, and siRNA has never been approved in an antiviral inclination or with the lungs as the target tissue. These challenges haven\u2019t stopped biopharmaceutical innovators like\u00a0Moderna<\/a>,\u00a0CureVac<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0BioNTech\/Pfizer<\/a>\u00a0from pursuing an mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, or partners\u00a0Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Vir Biotechnology<\/a>\u00a0from doubling down on a siRNA prophylactic therapy to treat those exposed to the\u00a0virus.<\/p>\n

What makes these therapies different from traditional platforms, and why are so many pharmaceutical leaders interested in their\u00a0potential?<\/p>\n

Continue reading here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Jake Adams, Project Manager at...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24866,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24865\/revisions\/24866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}