Unintended Protein Modifications in mRNA Vaccines Raise Safety Concerns

Modified components of messenger RNA (mRNA) can cause the protein-production machinery to stall during translation, potentially leading to the production of aberrant protein products. This finding has implications for mRNA vaccines and other therapeutic RNAs, highlighting the need to understand the details of how in vitro transcribed (IVT) mRNA encodes protein. The study reveals that ribosomes can stall at specific sequences along modified mRNA, which includes chemically modified nucleoside components. This research sheds light on potential unintended consequences of nucleoside-modified mRNA vaccines and other non-vaccine therapeutic RNAs.