"What's in my mRNA Vaccine?" Explainer Video
The mRNA vaccine is a new type of vaccine approved in the U.S. to prevent COVID-19. Since it is relatively new, many people are asking what is in my mRNA vaccine?
Like all drugs, the mRNA vaccine has two components, active and inactive ingredients.
There is only one active ingredient in these vaccines, nucleoside-modified messenger ribonucleic acid (or mRNA). This seems like a mouthful, but mRNA is simply genetic instructions that train your body to make the viral proteins (aka the spike proteins in the case of SARS-CoV-2). Since your body has never seen this protein before, it responds by building an immune response that will later recognize the same spike protein on the actual virus. RNA is naturally occurring, and your cells produce billions upon billions of copies every day. Luckily RNA can break down easily and rapidly, but that means the vaccine requires multiple inactive ingredients to stabilize it.
The first inactive ingredient is lipids, which form a coat around the RNA and protect it from being broken down. You can think of this as dropping oil in water; it forms tiny droplets, each one containing the mRNA and protecting it from the environment. It also makes it more appetizing to your cells, which will more readily pick up the fat-coated mRNA and can then use the recipe to make proteins.
The other three inactive ingredients are extremely common in just about any food or drug you can think of, and that’s salts (like potassium chloride and sodium chloride), acids (like acetic acid or vinegar), and sucrose (or table sugar). These ingredients help maintain the pH so the solution can be injected into your body and ensure that the mRNA doesn’t degrade during the freeze/thaw process.
And that’s it!
We urge everyone to do their part and get vaccinated to protect themselves and others from COVID-19, and please share this information with any friend or family member that might want to know what's in their vaccine.
Click here to read more about the mRNA vaccine ingredients here!
