mRNA-based vaccines – global approach, challenges, and could be a promising wayout for future pandemics

Abstract

mRNA-based vaccines are assured to significantly boost biopharmaceuticals since outbreak of coronavirus disease- 2019. Respiratory infections, such as influenza, SARS, MERS, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus, often have high transmission rates due to their airborne spread. Respiratory infections can lead to severe illness and death. These outbreaks can cause substantial economic and social disruption, as seen with the COVID-19 pandemic. In our interconnected world, respiratory diseases can spread rapidly across borders. mRNA-based vaccines (e.g. mRNA-1283) can reduce the transmission by creating immunity in the population, thus lowering the incidence and spread of these diseases. Vaccines are crucial for global health security, helping to prevent local outbreaks from becoming global pandemics. Nevertheless, various concerns remain such as intracellular delivery, susceptibility to degradation by catalytic hydrolysis, and instability due to several physiological conditions. Therefore, an hour needed to address these challenges and opportunities for attaining high-quality and stable mRNA-based vaccines with novel drug delivery systems. The authors contributed an extensive review of the mRNA-based clinical development, progress in stability, and delivery challenges to mitigate market needs. In addition, the authors discuss crucial advances in the growth of mRNA-based vaccines to date; which dominate an extensive scope of therapeutic implementation. Finally, recent mRNA-based vaccines in clinical trials, adjuvant benefits, and prospects are discussed.

Graphical abstract

Keywords:

• Adjuvant
• drug delivery
• liposome
• mRNA-based vaccine
• pandemic
• stability

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the Datta Meghe College of Pharmacy, Datta Meghe Institute of Higher Education and Research, Wardha, India for their financial support. The authors would like to thank, AlMaarefa University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for supporting this work.

Author contributions

S.M.: Formal analysis, Writing-original draft; G.M.E.: Review and editing, S.R.: Investigation, R.G.I.: Conceptualization, Review, and Editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.