The reasons that would have delayed the Nobel Prize in medicine for the creators of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19

The 2021 Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded to two scientists who discovered receptors in cells for temperature and touch, US-born researcher David Julius and Lebanon-born Ardem Patapoutian. But favorites in the scientific world were Hungarian scientist Katalin Karikó and American Drew Weissman, who made fundamental contributions to the development of messenger RNA vaccines against COVID-19. Amid the pandemic afflicting mankind, they were expected to be the Nobel Prize winners, but the short time that elapsed between their discoveries and their nascent use could be the one of the reasons they were not recognized in the category which began to be given in 1901.

30 years ago, in the 90s, no one imagined that the path blazed by a Hungarian biochemist Karikó would be so important that he became obsessed with finding a substance to fight diseases, via messenger RNA. After leaving her native Hungary in the 1980s, the researcher persisted in her passion for the United States.

Karikó has been at the forefront of at least two major breakthroughs: In 2005, together with his main collaborator Drew Weissman, he solved a synthetic mRNA problem. And ten years later, they figured out how to send it to the right part of the cells. These innovations were essential for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, of which Karikó is now vice president, as well as for the vaccine produced by Moderna.

“COVID-19 messenger RNA vaccines have brought about a shift in the history of vaccinology around the world. They save millions of lives, ”he said Infobae Dr Martin Stryjewski, Responsible for hospitalization at Cemic and member of the Argentine Society of Infectology. “Perhaps we will have to wait longer for Karikó and Weissman to be recognized as Nobel laureates,” he said.

Meanwhile, the virology researcher at Conicet, Alejandra Capozzo, said that “the development of messenger RNA vaccines was based on a platform that was already working. The timing was used to speed up due to the public health emergency and they managed to stabilize the vaccines which was one of the main challenges. Perhaps more long-term vaccine work is missing. As it is a technology to produce vaccines, it could also be recognized in the category of the Nobel Prize for chemistry this year or the following ones ”.

“I guess it’s just a matter of timing from the Nobel Committee. In the case of the Higgs boson, it was discovered in July 2012 and the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded in 2013. Although the “theoretical discovery” for which they awarded the prize took place in 1963. As a result, this prize had been suspended for a long time, “he said. Infobae physicist Daniel De Florian, principal researcher at Conicet, director of the International Center for Advanced Studies of the National University of San Martín and member of the National Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences.

Dr De Florian is part of the international team that detected the Higgs boson, better known as the “God particle”. “We all expected to receive the Nobel Prize for COVID-19 vaccine development this year. I was very surprised that they did not give it to him, ”he added.

Recently the magazine Nature He had pointed out in an article that it was also difficult to determine who deserves credit for pioneering messenger RNA technology for vaccines when speculation about Nobel Prize winners circulated. “In reality, the path to RNA vaccines was based on the work of hundreds of researchers over more than 30 years,” it was reported in the journal.

On September 9, Karikó and Weissman, who work at the University of Pittsburgh, were awarded the Breakthrough Prize 2022, which rewards $ 3 million.

Karikó and Weissman continue to work. Weissman’s team is working on using RNA to develop single-injection gene therapy to eliminate the defect that causes a type of anemia that affects 200,000 newborns in Africa each year. Although significant technical challenges remain to ensure that the treatment is safe and effective, researchers are optimistic. TThere are also many studies underway on the use of the technology for future vaccines and treatments for a wide range of diseases, such as HIV, cancer, and autoimmune and genetic diseases.

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