Reverse Engineering the source code of the BioNTech/Pfizer SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine - Bert Hubert's writings
a day ago
- The BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine contains mRNA source code of 4284 characters, with each character weighing about 0.53·10⁻²¹ grams, and a 30-microgram dose includes approximately 6·10¹⁶ characters or 13 trillion repetitions of the same sequence.
- The mRNA vaccine teaches the immune system to fight SARS-CoV-2 by instructing cells to produce the Spike protein, using a 'cap' (GA nucleotides) to mimic natural mRNA, a 5' untranslated region (UTR) for ribosome binding, and a signal peptide for protein localization.
- Key modifications include replacing uracil (U) with 1-methyl-3'-pseudouridylyl ( обозначено как ) to evade immune detection, and codon optimization to add more guanine (G) and cytosine (C) for enhanced protein production.
- Two proline substitutions in the Spike protein stabilize it in a pre-fusion configuration, improving vaccine efficacy, and the vaccine uses a poly-A tail with a linker to protect mRNA from degradation.
- The vaccine's source code includes a 3' untranslated region from AES and 12S ribosomal RNA for stability and expression, and ends with two stop codons for efficient protein translation.