Is it true that vaccines are changing our DNA?

One of the common fears regarding vaccination is the fear that the vaccination will change our DNA or DNA of future offspring, increasing the risk of cancer and autoimmune diseases. We decided to check whether modern vaccines are able to change the genetic code.

Such stories are distributed in social networks and messengers. Their authors They say: “Earlier, such vaccines were prohibited for use in public, as they intervene in the human gene pool. With the help of this vaccine, foreign DNA will be placed directly in the cage core, which is by definition a genetic modification. Covid-19 vaccine is gene therapy. She will change your DNA and turn you into GMOs. How exactly this acts on our genes is not disclosed, but I assure you, it will act on us in the most terrible way. ” Actively the theory of genetic modification of a person after vaccination distributes also a doctor of medical sciences Pavel Vorobyov: “We are introducing RNA, we have a reverse transcriptase mechanism that reads RNA and translates into DNA. Thus, the structure of the human genome changes, we do not know anything about it. ".

Most ancient The vaccination method is a moneter and Varilation Against natural smallpox. A healthy person needed to inhale the crushed scabs of the patient or to introduce subcutaneously liquid from the illuminated bubbles. The method was controversial and even forbidden In some countries, since he did not give a fairly reliable guarantee, and he himself could provoke epidemics.

In the 1880s, the French chemist and microbiologist Louis Paster invented Vaccines from chicken cholera, rabies and anthrax, using weakened microorganisms in them. The vaccines made in this way are now called alive. Exist Live vaccines for the prevention of plague, anthrax, tularemia, brucellosis, influenza, rabies, mumps, smallpox, yellow fever, measles, poliomyelitis, tuberculosis.

To another class Relate Inactivated (killed) vaccines. These are vaccines against polio, influenza, typhoid, cholera, plague, whooping cough, hemophilic infection. Some diseases (diphtheria, tetanus) are prevented by the third type of vaccine - with anxins (weakened toxins of microorganisms). Also exist subsidiary (containing not a whole virus or bacterium, but only parts of it), vector vaccines (using safe virus-transport and elements of the corresponding pathogen) and vaccines based on genetic material (delivering information RNA or DNA to the body-“instructions”-in the synthesis of the right specific protein).

Of course, neither live microorganism, nor killed, or even more so developed by him toxin DNA change Can't. Subanary vaccines contain proteins or sugar, and vector vaccines-consisting of proteins, an altered adenovirus shell that is incapable of reproduction, in particular, the vaccines against coronavirus contain the gene tied to adenovirus, which is responsible for the penetration of the virus into the cell. Exists Several approved vector vaccines against coronavirus, for example, the Russian “satellite V”, the Anglo-Swedish Astrazeneca, American Johnson & Johnson, and other clinical trials are still conducted. Unlike ASTRAZENECA, Russian vaccine Contains Two different adenovirus vectors. None of these vaccines can change DNA. “The human genome may affect what can integrate into the human genome or somehow influence the DNA structure. If the drug in the human body does not multiply, then it cannot integrate and interact with our nucleic acid, ” - Explains Microbiologist, Director of NICEM named after N.F. Gamaley Alexander Ginzburg. There is researchthat the adenovirus vector can be built into the DNA during incidental mutagenesis, however, the frequency of this phenomenon is lower than the occurrence of random mutations. Vector vaccines have been used for more than a year and help protect Humanity - for example, from the Ebola virus. Vector vaccine from it was registered in 2015 in Russia, and in 2019 - in USA.

The idea of ​​constructing a vaccine based on matrix RNA (aka MRNA) and DNA cannot also be called new. The first publications Relate By the 50-60s of the last century, when scientists have proved that DNA genetic information retains the ability to sign up and read after transferring to another cell. But then the case did not go beyond the theory. The first MRNK technology vaccine was registered only in December 2020. It was a PFIZER - BIONTECH vaccine against the new coronavirus.

In their action, they are one step They are ahead Others-the vector delivers the virus, it is unpacked, cells read it and begin to produce antigens proteins, and MRNA immediately supplies the “recipe” of these antigen proteins. Matrix RNA is not integrated into the vaccine body. Firstly, she too much Fragile, destroyed after the transmission of the “recipe” and is excreted from the body in average in 72 hours. Secondly, MRNA is not gets In the core nucleus - the part where DNA is stored, since the shell of the nucleus allows large molecules only to leave it, and not enter. Therefore, MRNA does not interact with DNA. 

However, there are still exceptions: with the help of the reverse transcriptase gene-a special enzyme-RNA can turn into DNA and gain access to the nucleus. Unscentrated preprint of such a study was Published in December 2020. Virusologist, Nobel laureate and discoverer of the David Baltimore reverse transcriptase gene in an interview with Science magazine agreed With such an opportunity, having made a reservation that fragments of the SARS-COV-2 virus do not lead to the formation of infectious material and thus represent a biological dead end.

Vaccination using DNA vaccines is also called genetic immunization. To date, six veterinary DNA vaccines are approved: against Melanoma In dogs, for stimulus growth hormone products in pigs, against infectious necrosis hematopoietic tissue in salmon, against pneumonia In mice, against fever Western Nile in horses and Seyvalov (type of whaling). For a person, not a single vaccine has been approved. Starting Clinical tests of vaccines against hepatitis C, cervical cancer, cancer of the head and neck, caries, HIV, flu and leukemia. Also Started The study of the DNA vaccine from coronavirus, now 120 people take part in it. However, such vaccines will not be able to change human DNA, since someone else's DNA, although it penetrates the cage core, usually not into it Introduces. Moreover, in theory, this can happen extremely rarely, however, Mark Scientists, the probability of this will be three orders of magnitude lower than that of spontaneous mutations, which makes such a risk, according to them, insignificant. To date, such cases Not fixed.

Thus, neither living, nor killed, nor vector vaccines used now are integrated into the cage core in general. In very rare cases, matrix RNA can penetrate the core, but is not able to integrate into it and begin to reproduce in the cells formed as a result of division. DNA vaccines are potentially likely to integrate into the genome, but so far such cases are not fixed and people are not produced by such vaccines.

Update dated August 27, 2021. The first DNA vaccine against coronavirus was Approved For emergency use on August 20 in India. It is called Zycov-D and is recommended for use for people over 12 years old. To obtain full immunity, three doses are required. In addition to the innovative design of the vaccine, the way of introducing it is also interesting-a cozy patch-clap with microelars. However, for this vaccine, the risk of embedding in DNA is three orders of magnitude lower than the risk of random mutations.

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

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