Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by flobosg 2005 days ago
> cells can't make Ψ

Pseudouridine is the most common RNA modification in cells, actually. They produce it all the time.

> and probaby Ψ is not super durable as a chemical.

Quite the opposite. Pseudouridine usually increases the stability of the RNA molecule it modifies.

1 comments

Taken from the article (probably after an update):

Many people have asked, could viruses also use the Ψ technique to beat our immune systems? In short, this is extremely unlikely. Life simply does not have the machinery to build 1-methyl-3’-pseudouridylyl nucleotides. Viruses rely on the machinery of life to reproduce themselves, and this facility is simply not there. The mRNA vaccines quickly degrade in the human body, and there is no possibility of the Ψ-modified RNA replicating with the Ψ still in there. “No, Really, mRNA Vaccines Are Not Going To Affect Your DNA“ is also a good read.

I should have cleared that up. Normally Ψ would stand for pseudouridine, but the vaccine has a further modified base, 1-methylpseudouridine.