An RNA-based vaccine for Influenza A

The Use of the Technology RNA-based Vaccines for Influenza A Name Institution Affiliation Course Date of Submission The use of the technology RNA-based vaccines for Influenza A 1.0 Introduction Infection occasioned by an inordinate virulent strain of this virus can very well lead to millions of deaths, like was witnessed in the 1918 influenza pandemic. In any year, this deadly virus infects between 15 and 20 percent of the population, and causes the death of 36,000 people in the United States alone, and over 500,000 deaths worldwide. There have been some significant improvements in influenza vaccines; however, their production and availability are suboptimal. Influenza A based virus infections remain a major source of mortality and morbidity worldwide. And due to the fact that the effectiveness of the existing antiviral drugs and vaccines is limited, there is a need to develop new treatment modalities. Among the commonest infections that occur in the upper respiratory track as well as the lungs are actually those that are caused by influenza A virus. Influenza A vaccines based on RNA is seen as possible solution since sequence matched, clinical grade material could be reliably and rapidly produced, and in a scalable process, which would allow for a quick response to the pandemic strains that emerge. Indeed RNA vaccines do induce balanced, long-lived as well as protective immunity to the influenza A virus infections in every mice young and old and this vaccine has proven to be protective upon thermal stress. RNA vaccines have the potency of tackling the substantial medical needs in this area of influenza prophylaxis as well as the wider realm of anti-infective vaccinology (Wong and Webby 2012). 2.0 How the Technology Works Notably, available approved RNA vaccines format does elicit both B and T cell-dependant protection and further targets multiple antigens, even those that are highly conserved viral nucleoproteins thus reinforcing its usefulness as a cross protective vaccine. It should be noted that the effective vaccination remains the most reliable prophylactic measure against influenza virus infections. Production technologies that culminated in the cell-based influenza vaccines have been developed since the 1930s. It gained wide use as a pertinent technology for pandemic contingency following the human infections by the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu in 1997. Pandemic vaccines have been developed using this technology ten years after the initial regulatory approval. Nevertheless, the production capacity for cell based influenza vaccines remains inadequate to tackle an influenza pandemic that strikes (Say, 2012). While the traditional vaccines offer an annual protection from the latest influenza strains, the viruses evolve and mutate so quickly that we will find ourselves right where we started in the following year. And that is where a new revolutionary vaccine w...