Vaccine detail

Hi, I'm going to assume you're asking this in good faith because honestly, excruciating detail on the vaccines seems strangely scant, so if you want to buckle up and take in a lot of information, here you go.

So, mRNA vaccines are based on a science which has been worked on for a very long time, going back to the mid 90s. In essence, you have 'mRNA' which stands for Messenger Ribonucleic Acid. mRNA's are a normal, natural molecule which is present in literally any form of life that synthesizes proteins (which is basically everything.) mRNA's are a single strand Ribonucleic Acid molecule which works in compliment to any given DNA strand of a gene that makes up a living organism. What it does specifically is an mRNA is a version of Ribonucleic Acid which will actually leave the nucleus(1) of its cell in order to move to and communicate with the cytoplasm(2) of that cell, and give it information where the proteins are made in that cytoplasmic layer.

During this protein synthesis that occurs in the cytoplasm, the organelles(3) of the cell has a special organelle called a ribosome - which are present in all living cells - that perform this biological protein synthesis and will actually move along the mRNA in order to read its base sequence, and it reads that specific genetic code which is represented biologically as 'codons.' Codons are a very simple three-base triplet system of information that can then be physically linked together by the ribosome using proteinogenic amino acids in the order specified by the mRNA, using physical transferRNA molecules to carry these amino acids and to read the mRNA three nucleotides(4) at a time. Once this is all done, they are all translated into the corresponding amino acids, and then folded(5) into proteins.

Where the vaccines come in, is over many many years it's been painstakingly researched to figure out a way to correctly assign the proper codons - genetic code - in order to have the cells of a human being produce a very specific protein that triggers an immune system response in our bodies directly, without the use of weakened or dormant versions of the virus itself, unlike previous vaccines. The Johnson and Johnson vaccine, to my understanding, is using this older (but widely accepted) method of 'dormant virus' vaccination. The vaccine itself, as a result, is actually brilliantly simple - we take information that our bodies can understand, use it to 'trick' (it's not really a trick, just following biology really) our bodies into creating a very specific protein chain that our immune system picks up on, can recognise, and destroys. Your body then 'adds' to its internal list of diseases it now knows and understands how to successfully attack.

The entire makeup of the vaccine is pretty much based around this: Pfizer contains the nucleotide-modified messenger RNA of an encoded version of the viral spike protein present in SARS-CoV-2, which is the protein that gets folded in your body after being injected inside you. It is not a live virus, it is not dangerous - it's literally just genetic sequencing that your body interprets as information, then folds into a protein, to wit, your immune system attacks it and 'saves' its signature for later, in case you're ever exposed to it again.

Because this specific mRNA strand is actually not particularly stable (and on their own, none of them really are) -don't think 'radioactive isotope' unstable, think 'toothpick bridge' unstable, it's not dangerous. Just not viable to survive on its own, and because of this we have to add stabilisers to it as well, in order for it to survive in an environment for any specific time period. To do this, we use lipids. Lipids are an organic molecule which is found in most living things; they are soluble in nonpolar solvents which simply means they can dissolve in some solutions, but not others based on the cellular polarity of the solution(6). Cholesterol, fatty acids, fat in general, algae, etc are all examples of lipids, and in general could be described as 'oily.' The Pfizer vaccine uses four of these; [(4-hydroxybutyl)azanediyl]di(hexane-6,1-diyl) bis(2-hexyldecanoate), which is a synthetic lipid and a colourless, oily material; (2- hexyldecanoate),2-[(polyethylene glycol)-2000]-N,N-ditetradecylacetamide, a Polyethylene Glycol and lipid fusion which is used as a non-ionic compound to lower the surface tension of two separate liquids present in the vaccine; 1,2-distearoyl-snglycero-3-phosphocholine which is a phospholipid which uses Choline as the bulky portion of its molecule - choline is a essential nutrient for humans and most other animals. An example of a similar phospholipid would be egg yolk; and finally, cholesterol which probably does not need much explanation.

Additionally, the vaccine uses some salts for stabilisation and suspension of these substances in the form of saline. The salts that it contains are: potassium chloride, a common ingredient in many things; monobasic potassium phosphate, a less common ingredient but still common food additive; sodium chloride, which is literally salt; and basic sodium phosphate dihydrate, which is also an extremely common food additive and completely healthy unless used in MASSIVE quantities (we are talking nearly hundreds of thousands times more than the tiny amount that is in the saline solution used in the vaccine).

I hope this was helpful.

1: Nucleus is essentially the brain or information center of a cell. It controls the cell's genes, contains information about the cell's growth, and also controls the cell's reproduction. Like you probably know 'the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell,' the Nucleus is essentially the brain (but much less complex).

2: The Cytoplasm is essentially the housing that contains the entirety of a cell, as well as the 'space' inside of it that things exist in and move through, you can kind of think of it like when you encase objects in jello more or less. It is present in both animal and plant cells (which are notably very different cells).

3: Organelles are essentially very specific unit of the cell which perform one specific function - they are called organelles because, like in your body's organs, they are highly specialised and the body relies on the organs to function correctly and allow the entire body to work as a whole. So, organelles perform one task in any given cell, and are usually covered by their own plasma/cell membrane around them.

4: Nucleotides are an organic molecule found in living cells, essentially they are the building blocks of the nucleic acids RNA and DNA, which are the essential biomolecules for any living organism in the known universe.

5: Folding is just the actual physical process of a chain of protiens has translated all of its code and turns itself into a three dimensional structure, at this point it is when protiens become biologially viable and functional. It's not like, folding a letter or anything. If anything, it's more like origami :')

6: "Solution" in this case is the chemistry definition, where it is a mixture where one substance is dissolved in another.