ReviewInternational journal of biological sciences2021
mRNA vaccines for COVID-19: what, why and how.
Review in International journal of biological sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 187 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
187 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Post-COVID-19 Vaccination Meningitis and Meningoencephalitis: A Systematic Review of Case Series and Case Reports.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2025Pooled it
- Impact of COVID-19 Vaccination onInternational journal of fertility & sterility · 2024Pooled it
- Is it safe and effective to administer COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy? A systematic review and meta-analysis.American journal of infection control · 2023Pooled it
- Global incidence pattern and factors associated with common cutaneous reactions related to COVID-19 vaccination of 2.55 million participants in real-world settings: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of global health · 2023Pooled it
- The genetic and biochemical determinants of mRNA degradation rates in mammals.Genome biology · 2022Pooled it
- Safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines in children and adolescents: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials.Journal of medical virology · 2022Pooled it
- COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine in Patients With Lymphoid Malignancy or Anti-CD20 Antibody Therapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Clinical lymphoma, myeloma & leukemia · 2022Pooled it
- Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections in the Post-COVID era: recent advances from pathogenesis to clinical management.Infection · 2026Review
- Healthy Trust and Pandemic Readiness in the Context of Messenger RNA Vaccines: Protocol for a Sequential Deliberative Dialogue Study.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Development a novel in silico mRNA vaccine against Clostridium difficile.Journal, genetic engineering & biotechnology · 2026Article
- Exploring offspring behaviour after prenatal COVID-19 vaccination in mice.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Bio-inspired self-assembly of omega-3 fatty acids and peptides for responsive drug delivery.International journal of pharmaceutics: X · 2026Article
- Recent advances in the application of polymeric nanoparticles to the pulmonary delivery of mRNA.Nanomedicine (London, England) · 2026Review
- Single-cell transcriptomics reveals pediatric immune responses to COVID-19 vaccination.iScience · 2026Article
- Reimagining pharmacology education.Pharmacological reviews · 2026Review
- Uridine analogs prevent stress granule formation, not by blocking PKR recognition, but by inhibiting the synthesis of T7 RNA polymerase byproducts.RNA (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- A new mRNA antigen vaccine induces potent B and T cell responses and in vivo protection against SARS-CoV-2.NPJ vaccines · 2026Article
- A new mRNA antigen vaccine induces potent B and T cell responses andbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- AI-driven computational methods and benchmarking for T-cell antigen identification.Briefings in bioinformatics · 2026Review
- The Time Course of Serum Iron and Serum Ferritin Concentrations Post-COVID-19 and Influenza Vaccinations.Case reports in infectious diseases · 2026Article
127 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus -2 (SARS-CoV-2), has impacted human lives in the most profound ways with millions of infections and deaths. Scientists and pharmaceutical companies have been in race to produce vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. Vaccine generation usually demands years of developing and testing for efficacy and safety. However, it only took less than one year to generate two mRNA vaccines from their development to deployment. The rapid production time, cost-effectiveness, versatility in vaccine design, and clinically proven ability to induce cellular and humoral immune response have crowned mRNA vaccines with spotlights as most promising vaccine candidates in the fight against the pandemic. In this review, we discuss the general principles of mRNA vaccine design and working mechanisms of the vaccines, and provide an up-to-date summary of pre-clinical and clinical trials on seven anti-COVID-19 mRNA candidate vaccines, with the focus on the two mRNA vaccines already licensed for vaccination. In addition, we highlight the key strategies in designing mRNA vaccines to maximize the expression of immunogens and avoid intrinsic innate immune response. We also provide some perspective for future vaccine development against COVID-19 and other pathogens.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.