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So there is a whole new class of therapy being developed. Instead of targeting receptors, they use gene therapy (using mRNA for example) to make the cell grow receptors that they can then target with what would otherwise be a totally benign compound. These are also called RASSLs - Receptor Activated Solely by Synthetic Ligands. So now it is theoretically possible to sneak mRNA into a shot and then later introduce a seemingly benign compound into the food supply.

So there is a whole new class of therapy being developed. Instead of targeting receptors, they use gene therapy (using mRNA for example) to make the cell grow receptors that they can then target with what would otherwise be a totally benign compound. These are also called RASSLs - Receptor Activated Solely by Synthetic Ligands. So now it is theoretically possible to sneak mRNA into a shot and then later introduce a seemingly benign compound into the food supply.

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[–] [deleted] • 0 pt (edited )

Dude, mRNA is used in gene therapy. Reverse transcriptase is a thing that exists and mRNA payloads are used in many gene therapies. Yes there are also DNA gene therapies but if you go actually look into it, you'll find examples. Try reading an article before mouthing off and sounding like a retard. Midwit.

[–] • 0 pt

Mmm. Looks like retroviruses are indeed used in gene therapy. Retroviruses use RNA, and reverse transcriptase to convert the RNA to DNA. Note, however, that the RNA in the virus is not mRNA; it is structured differently in order to encode to proper DNA. mRNA can't be used for that, it has different termini.

So you're still being inaccurate in your claims.

[–] [deleted] • 0 pt (edited )

Epub 2019 Feb 19. Delivering the Messenger: Advances in Technologies for Therapeutic mRNA Delivery

Piotr S Kowalski 1 , Arnab Rudra 2 , Lei Miao 1 , Daniel G Anderson 3 Affiliations expand PMID: 30846391 PMCID: PMC6453548 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2019.02.012 Free PMC article Abstract

mRNA has broad potential as a therapeutic. Current clinical efforts are focused on vaccination, protein replacement therapies, and treatment of genetic diseases. The clinical translation of mRNA therapeutics has been made possible through advances in the design of mRNA manufacturing and intracellular delivery methods. However, broad application of mRNA is still limited by the need for improved delivery systems. In this review, we discuss the challenges for clinical translation of mRNA-based therapeutics, with an emphasis on recent advances in biomaterials and delivery strategies, and we present an overview of the applications of mRNA-based delivery for protein therapy, gene editing, and vaccination.

Here, a paper which includes using mRNA for gene editing took me 30 seconds on pubmed

edit to add:

Also as for mRNA working as a template for reverse transcriptase, from an article on inuslin production: Reverse transcriptase has also been employed in insulin production. By inserting eukaryotic mRNA for insulin production along with reverse transcriptase into bacteria, the mRNA could be inserted into the prokaryote's genome

[–] • 0 pt

Interesting. I'm still skeptical about how well this would work on multicellular organisms. The portion in your edit is, as you mentioned, for insulin production. You'd basically be blasting the code into a bunch of bacteria, which would basically just start uncontrollably churning out insulin. Most would die off, a few would survive, and you'd culture the remaining ones to have your insulin factory. Doing that to a human would be really messy. CRISPR is much more precise, though there's plenty of issues using that on humans as well.