News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Messengers of hope: two mRNA Covid-19 vaccines herald a new era for vaccinology. Parent comment

Re:Messengers of hope: two mRNA Covid-19 vaccines herald a n... by jcims on Tuesday December 29, 2020 @11:47PM (#25578665)
I generally agree with you. Keep in mind I'm at 'stayed at the Holiday Inn' levels of competence here, but in my mind the spike proteins that are generated by an actual infection don't typically leave the cytoplasm detached from the rest of the virus. This could be incorrect.

If that's generally true, the difference here would be that the part of the spike protein topology that is typically bound to other proteins in an actual infection would be accessible to the immune system in the case of a vaccination. I think that is where the differential risk could occur with a vaccination that wouldn't occur with an actual infection (however small that might be).

In my daughter's case, something happened when she was about 14 years old that caused her body to determine that the beta cells in her pancreas were invaders and have to die, so I'm just tuned into this kind of possible side effect.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Messengers of hope: two mRNA Covid-19 vaccines herald a n... by flobosg on Wednesday December 30, 2020 @12:27AM (#25578872)
> (...) but in my mind the spike proteins that are generated by an actual infection don't typically leave the cytoplasm detached from the rest of the virus.

If the virus is destroyed and released into the extracellular environment, its proteins can dissociate and are further fragmented and processed by the immune system. What’s usually presented to T cells are small antigen pieces as opposed to the whole virus/protein.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Messengers of hope: two mRNA Covid-19 vaccines herald a n... by jcims on Wednesday December 30, 2020 @06:24AM (#25580781)
This is a great point thank you.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Messengers of hope: two mRNA Covid-19 vaccines herald a n... by sampo on Wednesday December 30, 2020 @12:46AM (#25578963)
> in my mind the spike proteins that are generated by an actual infection don't typically leave the cytoplasm detached from the rest of the virus

Virus takes over the cell, makes the cell to manufacture components of the virus and to assemble viruses, until this disrupts the cell so bad that the cell dies and typically bursts. Surely at this point, not only assembled viruses, but also components at different stages of production, are released?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_viruses#Life-c...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Messengers of hope: two mRNA Covid-19 vaccines herald a n... by jcims on Wednesday December 30, 2020 @06:23AM (#25580779)
Thank you. I knew this at some level but this (amazing) animation of HIV got me on a track of thinking that the viruses have a mechanism for exiting the cell without destroying it:

https://vimeo.com/260291607

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Messengers of hope: two mRNA Covid-19 vaccines herald a n... by sampo on Wednesday December 30, 2020 @08:29AM (#25581474)
Like the Wikipedia article says, most viruses make the cell burst. Some, like HIV, have less destructive methods. I could not find how SARS-CoV-2 does it.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Messengers of hope: two mRNA Covid-19 vaccines herald a n... by gingerlime on Wednesday December 30, 2020 @11:15AM (#25582903)
> Keep in mind I'm at 'stayed at the Holiday Inn' levels of competence here

OT, but what does this mean or refer to? I'm curious :)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Messengers of hope: two mRNA Covid-19 vaccines herald a n... by jcims on Wednesday December 30, 2020 @11:20PM (#25589554)
https://youtu.be/eHCTaUFXpP8

Corny but fun, they had a few good ones.

[ Parent | on HN ]