For the vegans going crazy about shark squalene being used for the COVID vaccines: Rest assured, neither the Pfizer vaccine nor the Moderna vaccine contains squalene.
No sharks are being harmed for the only two COVID vaccines that actually look like they will hit the market.
Squalene is sometimes used as an adjuvant for antigen based vaccines. However, the Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines are mRNA based vaccines encapsulated in Lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles (LPNs). So do any of the lipids contain squalene in these vaccines?
Pfizer LNPs: ionizable amino lipid, phospholipid, cholesterol and a PEGylated lipid.
Moderna LNPs: A proprietary Ionizable lipid and 3 commercially available lipids: cholesterol, 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DSPC), and PEG2000 DMG.
Neither the Pfizer vaccine LNPs nor the Moderna vaccine LNPs contain the squalene lipid that other mRNA LNPs vaccines have used (Squalene, Span 85, DOTAP).
So hopefully you can all shut up, get vaccinated as soon as this hits market, and stop asking me this question.
Avi
For the vegans going crazy about shark squalene being used for the COVID vaccines: Rest assured, neither the Pfizer vaccine nor the Moderna vaccine contains squalene.
No sharks are being harmed for the only two COVID vaccines that actually look like they will hit the market.
Squalene is sometimes used as an adjuvant for antigen based vaccines. However, the Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines are mRNA based vaccines encapsulated in Lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles (LPNs). So do any of the lipids contain squalene in these vaccines?
Pfizer LNPs: ionizable amino lipid, phospholipid, cholesterol and a PEGylated lipid.
Moderna LNPs: A proprietary Ionizable lipid and 3 commercially available lipids: cholesterol, 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DSPC), and PEG2000 DMG.
Neither the Pfizer vaccine LNPs nor the Moderna vaccine LNPs contain the squalene lipid that other mRNA LNPs vaccines have used (Squalene, Span 85, DOTAP).
So hopefully you can all shut up, get vaccinated as soon as this hits market, and stop asking me this question.
Sources:
www.nejm.org/doi/suppl/10.1056/NEJMoa2028436/suppl…www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2027906?query=…www.nejm.org/doi/suppl/10.1056/NEJMoa2027906/suppl…www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5439223/www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168365…
4 years ago | [YT] | 59