Can the mRNA vaccines change our genetic code?
By Archa Fox, Jen Martin and Traude Beilharz  Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are mRNA vaccines, which contain tiny fragments of the genetic material known as messenger ribonucleic acid. And if social media is anything to go by, some people are concerned these vaccines can affect their genetic code. Heres why the chances of that happening are next to zero and some pointers to how the myth came about. The technology used in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines is a way of giving your cells temporary instructions to make the coronavirus spike protein. This protein is found on the surface of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. The vaccines teach your immune system to protect you if you ever encounter the virus. The mRNA in the vaccine is taken up by the cells in your body, ending up in the liquid inside each cell known as the cytoplasm. Our cells naturally make thousands of our own mRNAs all the time (to code for a range of other proteins). So the vaccine mRNA is just another one. Once the vaccine mRNA is in the cytoplasm its used to make the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. The vaccine mRNA is short-lived and is rapidly broken down after its done its job, as happens with all your other mRNA. Heres why the mRNA cant insert into your genetic code  Your genetic code is made up of a different, but related, molecule to the vaccine mRNA, known as DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid. And mRNA cant insert itself into your DNA for two reasons. One, both molecules have a different chemistry. If mRNAs could routinely insert themselves into your DNA at random, this would play havoc with how you produce proteins. It would also scramble your genome, which is passed on to future cells and generations. Life forms that do this would not survive. Thats why life has evolved for this not to happen. The second reason is vaccine mRNA and DNA are in two different parts of the cell. Our DNA stays in the nucleus. But vaccine mRNA goes straight to the cytoplasm, never entering the nucleus. There are no transporter molecules we know of that carry mRNA into the nucleus. There are some extremely rare exceptions. One is where genetic elements, known as retro-transposons, hijack cellular mRNA, convert it into DNA and insert that DNA back into your genetic material. This has occurred sporadically throughout evolution, producing some ancient copies of mRNAs scattered throughout our genome, to form so-called pseudogenes. Some retroviruses, such as HIV, also insert their RNA into our DNA, using similar methods to retro-transposons. However, there is a vanishingly small chance of a naturally occurring retro-transposon becoming active in a cell that has just received a mRNA vaccine. Theres also a vanishingly small chance of being infected with HIV at precisely the same time as receiving the mRNA vaccine. Even if a retro-transposon were to become active or a virus such as HIV were present, the chances of it finding the COVID vaccine mRNA, among the tens of thousands of natural mRNAs, is extremely unlikely. Thats because vaccine mRNA is degraded within several hours of entering the body. Even if vaccine mRNA did become a pseudogene, it would not produce the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but just one of the viral products, the harmless spike protein. We know of no studies looking for vaccine mRNA in the DNA of people who have been vaccinated. There is no scientific basis on which to suspect this insertion has happened. However, if these studies were to be carried out, they should be relatively straightforward. Thats because we can now sequence DNA in single cells. But in reality, it will be very hard to ever satisfy a naysayer who is convinced this genome insertion happens; they can always argue scientists need to look deeper, harder, in different people and in different cells. At some point this argument will need to be laid to rest. One study reported evidence for coronavirus RNA integrating into the human genome in cells grown in the lab that had been infected with SARS-CoV-2. However, that paper did not look at the mRNA vaccine, lacked critical controls and has since been discredited. ____________________    Credit: The Conversation