Algorithm for optimized mRNA design improves stability and immunogenicity.

ABSTRACT: Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines are being used to combat the spread of COVID-19 (refs. ^1-3), but they still exhibit critical limitations caused by mRNA instability and degradation, which are major obstacles for the storage, distribution and efficacy of the vaccine products⁴. Increasing secondary structure lengthens mRNA half-life, which, together with optimal codons, improves protein expression⁵. Therefore, a principled mRNA design algorithm must optimize both structural stability and codon usage. However, owing to synonymous codons, the mRNA design space is prohibitively large-for example, there are around 2.4 × 10⁶³² candidate mRNA sequences for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. This poses insurmountable computational challenges. Here we provide a si

SUBMITTER: Zhang H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10499610 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature