mRNA injections for COVID-19 by Pfizer reverse transcribes into human DNA in as little as six hours post-exposure

A new peer reviewed study by Swedish researchers from Lund University published in the journal: Molecular Biology, shows that mRNA injections for COVID-19 by Pfizer reverse transcribes into human DNA in as little as six hours post-exposure.

https://www.mdpi.com/1467-3045/44/3/73

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was announced by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a global pandemic on 11 March 2020, and it emerged as a devasting health crisis.

As of February 2022, COVID-19 has led to over 430 million reported infection cases and 5.9 million deaths worldwide [1].

Effective and safe vaccines are urgently needed to reduce the morbidity and mortality rates associated with COVID-19.

Several vaccines for COVID-19 have been developed, with particular focus on mRNA vaccines (by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna), replication-defective recombinant adenoviral vector vaccines (by Janssen-Johnson and Johnson, Astra-Zeneca, Sputnik-V, and CanSino), and inactivated vaccines (by Sinopharm, Bharat Biotech and Sinovac).

The mRNA vaccine has the advantages of being flexible and efficient in immunogen design and manufacturing, and currently, numerous vaccine candidates are in various stages of development and application.

Specifically, COVID-19 mRNA vaccine BNT162b2 developed by Pfizer and BioNTech has been evaluated in successful clinical trials [2,3,4] and administered in national COVID-19 vaccination campaigns in different regions around the world [5,6,7,8].

BNT162b2 is a lipid nanoparticle (LNP)–encapsulated, nucleoside-modified RNA vaccine (modRNA) and encodes the full-length of SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein, modified by two proline mutations to ensure antigenically optimal pre-fusion conformation, which mimics the intact virus to elicit virus-neutralizing antibodies [3].

Consistent with randomized clinical trials, BNT162b2 showed high efficiency in a wide range of COVID-19-related outcomes in a real-world setting [5]. Nevertheless, many challenges remain, including monitoring for long-term safety and efficacy of the vaccine. This warrants further evaluation and investigations. The safety profile of BNT162b2 is currently only available from short-term clinical studies.

Less common adverse effects of BNT162b2 have been reported, including pericarditis, arrhythmia, deep-vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, myocardial infarction, intracranial hemorrhage, and thrombocytopenia [4,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20]. There are also studies that report adverse effects observed in other types of vaccines [21,22,23,24].

To better understand mechanisms underlying vaccine-related adverse effects, clinical investigations as well as cellular and molecular analyses are needed.

A recent study showed that SARS-CoV-2 RNAs can be reverse-transcribed and integrated into the genome of human cells [25]. This gives rise to the question of if this may also occur with BNT162b2, which encodes partial SARS-CoV-2 RNA.

In pharmacokinetics data provided by Pfizer to European Medicines Agency (EMA), BNT162b2 biodistribution was studied in mice and rats by intra-muscular injection with radiolabeled LNP and luciferase modRNA.

Radioactivity was detected in most tissues from the first time point (0.25 h), and results showed that the injection site and the liver were the major sites of distribution, with maximum concentrations observed at 8–48 h post-dose [26].

Furthermore, in animals that received the BNT162b2 injection, reversible hepatic effects were observed, including enlarged liver, vacuolation, increased gamma glutamyl transferase (γGT) levels, and increased levels of aspartate transaminase (AST) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) [26].

Transient hepatic effects induced by LNP delivery systems have been reported previously [27,28,29,30], nevertheless, it has also been shown that the empty LNP without modRNA alone does not introduce any significant liver injury [27].

Therefore, in this study, we aim to examine the effect of BNT162b2 on a human liver cell line in vitro and investigate if BNT162b2 can be reverse transcribed into DNA through endogenous mechanisms.