NOVOSIBIRSK, December 6. /TASS/.

Russia's first industrial production of components necessary for the creation of mRNA vaccines against viral, bacterial infections and cancer has been launched by the Biosan and Biolabmix group of companies in Novosibirsk. Any mRNA can be assembled from these components and can be used by scientific teams in Russia, Vladimir Richter, deputy director of Biosan, told reporters.

“We have launched Russia's first production of reagents for mRNA vaccines. Packaging with solutions in test tubes, let's call them “cubes”. Let's imagine that a vaccine or mRNA preparation needs to be assembled from them. There are many cubes, they are different, each has its own color. There are chemical cubes, there are enzymatic cubes, and there are biotechnological cubes. It is unrealistic to get these cubes quickly, you need a lot of equipment and competence in different areas - chemical synthesis, enzyme builders, and chromatographic equipment,” Richter said.

He said that the company also produces reagents for molecular biology, genetic engineering, biochemistry and basic medicine, which were previously purchased abroad. “Reagents for molecular biology, biochemistry and diagnostics were procured abroad. We managed to organize the production of some of these components, which are not actually purchased now. In addition, we produce a whole range of PCR kits and here we have managed to significantly squeeze out imported competitors. We can say that Russia has achieved import-independence for these reagents,” Richter said.

The number of consumers of Biosan products numbers in the hundreds. Among them are leading institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Ministry of Health, Rospotrebnadzor, FMBA of Russia, as well as development institutes such as Sirius, Skolkovo and Fiztech.

Earlier, Grigory Stepanov, head of the Laboratory of Genomic Editing at the Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that the institute is developing a mRNA vaccine against the influenza virus. Pilot experiments have begun on mice to show the vaccine's effectiveness.

About mRNA

The mRNA vaccine carries information to generate an immune response. Ribonucleic acid-based vaccines encode a protein specific to the pathogen. In addition to the RNA itself, the vaccine contains a lipid envelope that protects the RNA from degradation and allows the RNA to enter the cell. When the mRNA enters the cell, cellular protein synthesis mechanisms produce a protein encoded in the RNA. This protein acts as an antigen: it is detected by the immune system of the organism and trained on this protein - specific immunity is formed in the organism. Later, when a pathogen enters the body, the immune system recognizes it by the already known protein and destroys the infection, preventing the disease from developing.

Biosan Group and Biolabmix are two Novosibirsk companies jointly producing reagents, enzymes and kits for molecular biology, biochemistry and genetic engineering.