mRNA technology for the development of vaccines against infectious diseases

ABSTRACT

The mRNA-based vaccine technology is gradually developed as one of the new vaccine technologies in recent years. The technology is becoming more mature in terms of its stability and efficient delivery. Antigens encoded by mRNA vaccines are expressed in the cytoplasm and can induce the activation of both B cell responses and T cell cytotoxicity against infectious pathogens. In addition, the simple production process of synthetic mRNA vaccines can facilitate rapid response to emerging infectious diseases such as 2019-nCoV infection. In order to understand the current status of mRNA vaccine research and development for infectious diseases as well as providing reference for the development of clinically applicable mRNA vaccine against 2019-nCoV pandemic, this paper mainly reviewed the structural characteristics, advantages and challenges of mRNA vaccines and the current situation of vaccine research application in infectious diseases.