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FACT BRIEF

Do some promising COVID-19 vaccine candidates use nanotechnology?

Friday, November 27, 2020
By Bakar Wilson
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YES

Two promising COVID-19 vaccine candidates employ extremely small particles to induce human cells to ward off the disease, an application of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology involves physical particles about 1 to 100 nanometers in size. There are 25,400,000 nanometers in an inch.

Vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna, which have shown encouraging results in early human trials, use a "messenger" RNA nanoparticle, a molecule that conveys genetic information, to instruct cells to produce antigens. Antigens in turn induce the body's immune system to produce antibodies against the virus. An mRNA vaccine differs from widely-used "live" vaccines used to protect against a range of familiar diseases such as chickenpox and measles, which inject a weakened version of the targeted virus into the body.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
National Nanotechnology Initiative: What is nanotechnology?
Pfizer: Get the facts on our COVID-19 vaccine candidates
Centers for Disease Control: Understanding how vaccines work
National Library of Medicine: COVID-19 vaccine frontrunners and their nanotechnology design
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Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.