Nucleoside modification of mRNA (pseudouridine) to avoid immune response
Modificación de nucleósidos del ARNm (pseudouridina) para evitar la respuesta inmune
- Date
- 2005 · confidence high
- Place
- University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- Credited to
- Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Karikó, a Hungarian biochemist, and Weissman discovered that replacing uridine with pseudouridine in synthetic RNA prevents cells detecting it as an invader and triggering inflammation. That modification, together with lipid nanoparticles, made it feasible to use messenger RNA as a vaccine.
The key paper appeared in Immunity in 2005; Karikó, born in Hungary, worked many years without stable funding. The same modifications are used in the BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
What it led to
- mRNA COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer–BioNTech and Moderna
- RNA therapeutics and cancer vaccines
- 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine