Q+A: The next medical breakthrough Australia wants to own
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Welcome to Fear and Greed Q&A, where we ask and answer questions about investing, economics, politics and more. I'm Sean Aylmer. Most of us first heard about RNA during the pandemic when it became the technology behind some of the world's first COVID vaccines. But scientists now believe that was just the beginning with RNA research expanding into areas including cancer, dementia, infectious diseases and even agriculture. Australia wants to be part of that story with the recent opening of the Southern Hemisphere's first end-to-end vaccine. RNA manufacturing facility. Paul McDonald is CEO of RNA Australia. Paul, welcome to Fear and Greed Q&A. Thanks, Sean. It's really good to be here today. Firstly, for someone like me, a 101 on RNA.
What exactly is it?
What is RNA and how did it become widely known during COVID-19?
RNA is effectively, it's a natural part of process, a biological process. And RNA is ribonucleic acid. So it's a part of the DNA structure. And when it comes away from DNA, we create a messenger RNA called mRNA. And that messenger mRNA is being directed by the DNA's learning and to create proteins of specific proteins that have physiological processes. So going beyond that, RNA comes in a few different forms. This is the really critical bit that I like to coach people on. There is short forms and there's quite long message forms. So you have small interfering RNAs which will block the process of mRNA and stop a protein being synthesized by the body. Or you'll have a messenger RNA which will be used by the cells to read and create a protein.
And there's a lot of other regulatory effects as well with RNA as well. But that's a general gist of it as you think about it being a therapy.
Okay. Is it something, I mean, I heard about it during COVID and what you talked about is familiar to me from COVID. Is it something that's been around for decades and decades in your world and the rest of us just kind of heard of it because of COVID or is it actually a breakthrough in the last decade?
No. Well, it's really had some breakthrough and some push through the COVID period. But as a therapy goes, RNA has been using therapies for quite a few decades. In fact, they're already blockbusters on the market well before COVID. So as I explained, the two sort of Two of the major types of therapies being messenger RNA or small interfering RNA. There are other types as well, but they're the two that are used commercially. The siRNAs have been used in major muscular disorders and neuromuscular disorders for quite some time. And there's two single billion dollar products in the market treating those disorders already. So now we're quite familiar for the last few decades to be developing those type of drugs, but it's definitely had a real substantial push since the COVID pandemic.
So where is the research going from here? So muscular, obviously, COVID, where else?
Yeah, so the mRNA vaccines were developed for respiratory response. And as I explained, the those mRNA sequences were used to code the spike antigen of the virus. So to simulate an interaction with COVID by the body, so it would create and build its own immune system. So then when you come in contact with COVID, your immune system, your secondary immune system's been primed with the right antibodies to attack those antigens. So that's how the mRNA vaccine But where it's going is respiratory diseases. We're looking right now at foot and mouth disease, lumpy skin disease. There's known technologies now being developed for those biosecurity. If those diseases come into Australia, it'll completely disrupt Australia's livestock industry to the effect of billions of dollars.
So there are... opportunities there being developed. There's opportunities in cancer. As I said, you think those two modes, one to design something that will build an enzyme or a protein to have a specific action or one to switch one off. So that proves really nicely for cancer. You've got the ability to switch off certain biological systems and you've got
How does messenger RNA (mRNA) differ from other RNA therapies like siRNA?
are the opportunities to stimulate biological systems. So stimulate immune response or switch off the mechanism that's generating a cell proliferation.
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