Human beings boast a variety of skills, but one prominent member from this pack is our ability to come up with solutions for literally any imaginable problem out there. You see, having your mind wired in such a progressive way ends up guiding you big time when the pursuit is about achieving continuous growth. The said guidance, however, can come in many different shapes and forms. With their selling points constructed to be unique, it becomes hard to draw a fair comparison between two given representations, but if we just assess their impact without changing a thing, we get one clear winner in the form of technology. While technology has certainly been a major guiding force for us since its introduction, the creation’s best feature talks to how it has fulfilled that role across hugely contrasting areas. This, as a result, has enabled us in terms of scaling up on a more holistic level, therefore creating a dynamic where the room for benefactors is seemingly a huge one. Nevertheless, a benefactor that would go on get the most out of technology is our medical sector. In fact, it looks poised to take another crucial step towards better healthcare.
The researching team at University of California, San Diego, has successfully developed a brand new mRNA delivery technique, which puts flu virus-inspired nanoparticles at the heart of everything. Powered by a protein receptor, these nanoparticles are able to break through the endosomes and release a much higher volume of mRNA within the interior of cells. Up until now, we have seen many medical permutations containing mRNA struggling rather extensively with a weak endosomal escape mechanism. More often than not, the nanotherapeutics end up staying locked inside the endosome before eventually getting destroyed by the natural acidic environment. The new technique from University of California solves that conundrum in quite an interesting manner, as it mirrors the influenza virus’ skill in penetrating the cells.
“Achieving efficient endosomal escape would be a game changer for mRNA vaccines and therapies,” said Liangfang Zhang, researcher involved in the study. “If you can get more mRNA into cells, this means you can take a much lower dose of an mRNA vaccine, and this could reduce side effects while achieving the same efficacy.”
Even though mRNA isn’t a new concept by any means, it has caught some real momentum over the recent past due to its role in our fight against Covid 19. Assuming the whole thing ends up working out just the way it was intended, we could very well be looking at a new future for healthcare.
