Took a bit of time. But I think I really understand the LNPs now. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Liposomes (a single layer of natural phospholipids with water inside and NO transfection) are tolerable, but these solid nanostructured LNPs are another story.
I needed to study nanotechnology as part of my (second) PhD education. It was SCARY. Can all be summarized in one word: it always goes against intuition and what we are familiar with. You are so right. Just too many unknowns!
I think many people focus on the ionizable lipid itself and think that's the toxic part. It is the LNPs as a nanoparticle which we need to understand imho.
A reactive nanoparticle in biological fluids AND transfection. Beyond scary.
Totally agree. I have not looked into this matter for the simple reason it is a completely different "reality" that is not well understood in a BIOLOGICAL context, even though nano research is heavily funded. When I was a student taking the course, I already found a lot of evidence of why nano-theory/applications could easily destroy biological harmony at numerous levels. It was very obvious ten years already. Have not heard much since. Wonderful computer pics and animations instead...
That is really informative - thank you so much. At some point can you do a deep dive into the technology of the adenovirus vaccines cos I am in the UK and I tell people about the mRNA vaccines and how dangerous they are and invariably people ask about the adenovirus ones which were widely used here but I don't know much about them except they also instruct the cells to make spike and spike is dangerous but apart from that I get stuck.
I'd like too but I sometimes get overwhelmed as it is. Those AVV vaccines are genetically modified organisms and as such there is a whole lot of regulation and testing that wasn't done.
The salad dressing example was helpful for me. LNPs are the olive oil and mRNA is the red wine vinegar. The salt, mashed up garlic and the dash of mustard must represent the DNA contamination and dsRNA.
No, you're right. Was just trying to get at the weird quantum like properties of these things and the unpredictability. I would say, after listening to Moderna's Mark Brader presenting on these LNPs, he would not disagree. Or at least not disagree too much.
What freaking deep dive
Amazing
Thanks!
Took a bit of time. But I think I really understand the LNPs now. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Liposomes (a single layer of natural phospholipids with water inside and NO transfection) are tolerable, but these solid nanostructured LNPs are another story.
No one really knows what these are
What they look like
They think they do
But they don't
It's the ultimate in hubris
I needed to study nanotechnology as part of my (second) PhD education. It was SCARY. Can all be summarized in one word: it always goes against intuition and what we are familiar with. You are so right. Just too many unknowns!
I think many people focus on the ionizable lipid itself and think that's the toxic part. It is the LNPs as a nanoparticle which we need to understand imho.
A reactive nanoparticle in biological fluids AND transfection. Beyond scary.
Totally agree. I have not looked into this matter for the simple reason it is a completely different "reality" that is not well understood in a BIOLOGICAL context, even though nano research is heavily funded. When I was a student taking the course, I already found a lot of evidence of why nano-theory/applications could easily destroy biological harmony at numerous levels. It was very obvious ten years already. Have not heard much since. Wonderful computer pics and animations instead...
That is really informative - thank you so much. At some point can you do a deep dive into the technology of the adenovirus vaccines cos I am in the UK and I tell people about the mRNA vaccines and how dangerous they are and invariably people ask about the adenovirus ones which were widely used here but I don't know much about them except they also instruct the cells to make spike and spike is dangerous but apart from that I get stuck.
I'd like too but I sometimes get overwhelmed as it is. Those AVV vaccines are genetically modified organisms and as such there is a whole lot of regulation and testing that wasn't done.
The salad dressing example was helpful for me. LNPs are the olive oil and mRNA is the red wine vinegar. The salt, mashed up garlic and the dash of mustard must represent the DNA contamination and dsRNA.
Thanks for a fascinating deep dive into LNPs.
A phrase in your last block seems unsupported by any discussion in the article: "almost sentient properties"?
No, you're right. Was just trying to get at the weird quantum like properties of these things and the unpredictability. I would say, after listening to Moderna's Mark Brader presenting on these LNPs, he would not disagree. Or at least not disagree too much.
ah ok, just checking if a section was accidentally omitted