mRNA-Vaccine Platform: Features of Obtaining and Delivery of mRNA

Vaccination is the most effective way to prevent infectious diseases. One new approach to vaccine development is mRNA-based vaccines, which have a number of very useful advantages over other types of vaccines. As the mRNA only encodes the target antigen, there is no potential risk of infection, as would be the case with an attenuated or inactivated pathogen. The principle of mRNA vaccines’ action is function in the cytosol of the cell; due to this the probability of mRNA integration into the host genome is extremely low. mRNA vaccines are able to induce specific cellular and humoral immune responses, but do not induce an anti-vector immune response. The mRNA vaccine platform makes it easy to replace the target gene without changing the production technology, which is important for solving the problem of a time gap between the start of an epidemic and vaccine production. The review focuses on the history of mRNA vaccines, the technology of their production, methods for increasing the stability of mRNA, description of modifications of the cap, poly(A) tail, coding and noncoding parts of mRNA, purification of the target mRNA vaccine from by-products, and various delivery methods.