After the success of their mRNA COVID-19 vaccine development and production, the biotech company Moderna announced that they would be developing a separate set of vaccines that would help to treat other diseases.
Moderna's 3 New mRNA Vaccines
The Moderna logo is seen at the Moderna campus in Norwood, Massachusetts on on December 2, 2020, where the biotechnology company is mass producing its Covid-19 vaccine. - The US hopes to have immunized 100 million people against Covid-19 by the end of February, a top official said on December 2, which is approximately 40 percent of the country's adult population. The push should start within weeks, when vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna-NIH are expected to be approved.
The three new Moderna vaccines will be created to treat illnesses from herpes simplex virus, varicella-zoster virus, and cancer.
In the first quarter of 2020, the novel coronavirus, also known as SARS-CoV-2, struck many countries on its first surge. The uncontrollable situation triggered a larger public health problem and resulted in a global pandemic.
During the first few months of the pandemic, Moderna and another pharmaceutical enterprise immediately developed their vaccines that could serve as protection against the coronavirus. Thanks to the decades of medical technology advancements, the scientific community was able to formulate mRNA COVID-19 vaccines by the end of the year.
From an experimental aspect to being the widely accepted solution against the coronavirus, the mRNA vaccines were produced around the world in the previous year. The success of the treatments did not just prove the capacity of science to match modern-day problems but also opened outlets to new studies of other health problems.
The accomplishment of mRNA has driven Moderna to research other benefits that could be harnessed from the technology. Recently, the pharmaceutical company announced that they will be developing three new vaccines alongside the plans they previously released.
Moderna was reportedly aiming to create mRNA vaccine targets for cytomegalovirus (CMV), influenza, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), as well as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Moderna's Treatments for Herpes, Shingles, and Cancer
As per Moderna, the three new vaccines will include a solution for the herpes simplex virus (HSV). There are two types of HSV, with the first affecting the mouth and producing cold sores (HSV-1) and the other as the common source of genital herpes (HSV-2).
Moderna's new herpes vaccine will be specialized to target HSV-2 but will have a cross-effective impact against the HSV-1. Both types of herpes are known to be a product of a latent virus that causes chronic infection and remains dormant in many of the population throughout their lifetime.
HSV-1 is theorized to be present in over half of the global population. HSV-2, on the other hand, is one of hte world's most common suspects of sexually transmitted diseases. Of the world's population, ten percent are believed to be diagnosed by HSV-2.
Previous studies, presented in the journals Neuron and Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, have shown the potential role of the herpes virus in the onset presence of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's.
Varicella-zoster virus (VSV) is the second disease that will be targeted by the newest mRNA vaccines of Moderna. The virus is responsible for producing chickenpox, and like HSV, the VSV is also a latent virus that could lay dormant for years after the initial infection. Reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus triggers a disease we know as shingles.
Cancer is targeted for the third mRNA development. According to a report by New Atlas, the cancer vaccine will focus on two antigens, called the programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) and Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), that are expressed by the cancer cells.
The antigens are responsible for the tumor growth during diagnoses. The new vaccine is expected to train the immune system to detect tumor cells that contain the specified cancer cells.
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