A vacina do mRNA poderia alterar permanentemente o DNA?

MIT and Harvard study suggests mRNA vaccine may permanently alter DNA after all.

Will an RNA vaccine permanently change our DNA?

The authors sought to answer the question of how a PCR test is able to detect segments of viral RNA when the virus is presumably not present in a person’s body. They hypothesized that somehow segments of viral RNA are copied into DNA and then permanently integrated into the DNA of the body’s cells.

There are several molecular pathways that would allow the RNA in an mRNA vaccine to be copied and permanently integrated into our DNA. It is not a surprise that most people thought this prospect is impossible, but this is because most people do not have a deep enough understanding of molecular biology, and partly because of other implicit biases.

After all, we have been told in no uncertain terms that it is impossible for a vaccine’s mRNA to be integrated into our DNA because “RNA doesn’t work that way.” Well, this recent research shows that “RNA does work that way.”

This new study by MIT and Harvard scientists shows that segments of RNA from the coronavirus itself most likely become an integral part of human DNA. This was once thought to be virtually impossible, for the same reasons that assure us that an RNA vaccine could not accomplish such a feat. Contrary to common biological doctrine, these researchers found that the genetic segments of this RNA virus most likely make their way into our genome.

And it appears that this integration of viral RNA segments into our DNA is not so rare. It is difficult to quantify the likelihood because of the limited data in the study, but based on the frequency with which this phenomenon could be measured in both Petri dishes and COVID patients, the likelihood is much greater than thought originally.

To be fair, this study has not shown that the RNA from current vaccines is integrated into our DNA. However, it has shown quite convincingly that there is a viable cellular pathway by which snippets of viral SARS-CoV-2 RNA could be integrated into our genomic DNA. Further research is needed to confirm these results and fill in some gaps.

Nevertheless, these data can be used to make a guess as to whether the RNA contained in an RNA vaccine could potentially alter human DNA. This is because an mRNA vaccine consists of snippets of viral RNA from the SARS-CoV-2 genome; in particular, current mRNA vaccines contain stabilized mRNA that codes for the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, the protein that allows the virus to bind to cell surface receptors and infect our cells.

This was thought to be virtually impossible. Based on this groundbreaking study, the highly presumptuous claim that such a scenario is impossible should go into the trash can that says “things we were absolutely and unequivocally sure could not happen, but actually did”; however, the significance of this study will be downplayed in short order by reports of experts trying to poke holes in their work. It is important to add that even if this work is a preliminary publication that has not yet been peer-reviewed; there are only a few errors in the work and just some gaps that need to be filled from the standpoint of answering the question: can RNA from coronavirus use existing cellular pathways to permanently integrate into our DNA? From this point of view, their work is rock solid. Please also note that they are distinguished scientists from MIT and Harvard.

Quote from their paper:

“In support of this hypothesis, we found chimeric transcripts consisting of viral sequences fused to cellular sequences in published datasets of SARS-CoV-2-infected cultured cells and primary cells from patients, consistent with transcription of viral sequences integrated into the genome. To provide experimental support for the possibility of viral retro-integration, we describe evidence that SARS-CoV-2 RNAs can be reverse transcribed in human cells by reverse transcriptase (RT) from LINE-1 elements or by HIV-1-RT and that these DNA sequences can be integrated into the cell genome and subsequently transcribed. Human endogenous LINE-1 expression was induced upon SARS-CoV-2 infection or by cytokine exposure in cultured cells, suggesting a molecular mechanism for SARS-CoV-2 retro-integration in patients. This novel feature of SARS-CoV-2 infection may explain why patients can continue to produce viral RNA after recovery and suggests a new aspect of RNA virus replication.”

Why these researches?

Why did these researchers bother to investigate whether viral RNA could be hardwired into our genomic DNA? It turned out that their motive had nothing to do with mRNA vaccines.

The researchers were stunned by the fact that there are a substantial number of individuals who continue to test positive for COVID-19 by PCR long after infection. It was also shown that these individuals were not reinfected.

The authors sought to answer the question of how a PCR test is able to detect segments of viral RNA when the virus is presumably no longer present in a person’s body. They hypothesized that in some way segments of viral RNA are copied into DNA and then permanently integrated into the DNA of the body’s cells. This would allow these cells to continuously produce pieces of viral RNA that could be detected in a PCR assay, even in the absence of active infection.

In their experiments, they did not find full-length viral RNA integrated into genomic DNA; rather, they found smaller segments of viral DNA, mostly representing the nucleocapsid (N) protein of the virus, although other viral segments were integrated into human DNA at lower frequencies.

In this work, they show that:

1) Segments of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA can be integrated into human genomic DNA.

2) This newly acquired viral sequence is not silent, meaning that these genetically modified regions of genomic DNA are transcriptionally active (DNA is converted back to RNA).

3) Segments of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA were retro-integrated into human genomic DNA in cell cultures. This retro-integration into the genomic DNA of COVID-19 patients is also indirectly suggested by the detection of chimeric RNA transcripts in cells from COVID-19 patients. Although their RNAseq data suggest that genomic alteration occurs in COVID-19 patients, PCR, DNA sequencing, or Southern blot should be performed on purified genomic DNA from COVID-19 patients to conclusively prove this point. This is a gap that remains to be filled in research. However, the in vitro data in human cell lines are unobjectionable.

4) This viral retro-integration of RNA into DNA can be induced by endogenous LINE-1 retrotransposons, which produce an active reverse transcriptase (RT) that converts RNA into DNA. (All humans have multiple copies of LINE-1 retrotransposons in their genome). The frequency of retro-integration of viral RNA into DNA correlates positively with the level of LINE-1 expression in the cell.

5) These LINE-1 retrotransposons may be activated by viral infection with SARS-CoV-2 or cytokine exposure of the cells, which increases the probability of retro-integration.

Rather than go into detail about all the results, I will answer the big question on everyone’s mind: If the virus is able to accomplish this, why should I care if the vaccine does the same?

Understanding Molecular Biology

Well, let’s first address the big elephant in the room. First, you should care because “they told you that this is impossible and you should just shut up and take the vaccine.” These pathways that these researchers have confirmed with their experiments are not unknown to people who understand molecular biology at a deeper level. It is not hidden knowledge accessible only to initiates. People developing the vaccines have a very good understanding of molecular biology. So why have they not discovered this, not even asked this question, and not done any experiments to rule this out? Instead, they just used the superficially simplistic Biology 101 course as an excuse to say that RNA does not turn into DNA. This is completely disingenuous and you could have easily figured this out.

Second, there is a big difference between the scenario where people are accidentally and unknowingly having their genetics tampered with because they were exposed to coronavirus and the scenario where we are intentionally vaccinating billions of people while telling them this is not happening. Would you disagree with that? What is the logic behind saying, “Well, this bad thing may or may not happen to you, so we’re going to unravel the mystery and make sure it happens to everybody.”? This is an ethical decision that you should make, not them.

Third, the RNA in the vaccine is different from the RNA produced by the virus: the RNA in the vaccine is man-made. First, it is made to stay in your cells much longer than usual (RNA is naturally unstable and degrades quickly in the cell). Second, it is manipulated so that it can be efficiently translated into proteins (this is achieved by codon optimization). Increasing the stability of the RNA increases the likelihood that it will be integrated into your DNA, and increasing the translation efficiency increases the amount of protein translated from the RNA when it is integrated into your DNA in a transcriptionally active region of your genome. Theoretically, this means that all of the negative effects associated with the natural process of viral RNA/DNA integration could be more frequent and more pronounced with the vaccine than with the natural virus.

As an aside, these researchers found that the genetic information for the nucleocapsid “N” protein was by far the most frequently permanently integrated into human DNA (because this RNA is more abundant when the virus replicates in our cells). The vaccine, on the other hand, contains RNA that codes for the spike (S) protein. Thus, when the mRNA from the vaccine (or partial segments of it) enters a transcriptionally active region of our genome through a retro-integration process, it causes our cells to produce an excess of spike protein rather than N protein. Our immune system does produce antibodies against both N and S proteins, but the spike protein is the main target of our immune system because it is on the outside of the virus. If our cells become permanent (rather than temporary) spike protein production factories due to a permanent change in our genomic DNA, this could lead to serious autoimmune problems. I would imagine that autoimmunity profiles resulting from such a scenario would be differentiated by sequence of events (i.e., whether someone was vaccinated before or after exposure to coronavirus).

Again, this is a theoretical exercise, I am not claiming that an mRNA vaccine permanently alters your genomic DNA, I merely asked the question and pointed out hypothetical, plausible molecular pathways by which such an event could occur. I believe that this current research confirms that this is at least plausible and most likely probable. More detailed investigation and testing is certainly needed to rule out this possibility, and I would hope that a rigorous and comprehensive testing program would be conducted with the same enthusiasm with which the vaccine has passed the usual safety checks.

Of course, even in light of this information, people are still free to get vaccinated and will do so according to the overall balance of risks and benefits they perceive in their minds. My purpose in writing this article is to ensure that you can make this assessment fairly by knowing all of the potential risks and benefits, not just an incomplete selection. With a matter as important as this, you should not be in the dark.

I encourage you to share this article to inform others of the potential risks and benefits.