Assignment task: For a vaccine to be effective, it has to generate strong enough immune response. This will be directly correlated to the amount of antigen delivered or produced. A variation of IVT mRNA called self-amplifying mRNA contains replicase genes that encode RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. This is a virus-derived polymerase that amplifies viral mRNA transcripts intracellularly.
a) If 45 copies of self-amplifying IVT mRNA coding for a full-length SARS-CoV-2 spike protein are delivered into a cell, what is the mass (amount) of protein that will be produced in the cell within three minutes assuming (for simplicity) the following:
- One RNA polymerase is synthesized from each mRNA during the first minute, and no new polymerases are synthesized thereafter.