Oops! but maybe a good oops.
‘We demonstrate that human recombinant adenoviral vectors co-localize to mitochondria.’1
It is emerging that folk who had the AstraZenica vaccine during the Covid pandemic are showing long term resistance to ‘non-target’ pathogens1. Rephrased prosaically and with anecdotal embellishment this can be summarised as not getting colds/sore throats, for years now. When it seems certain to one that ‘a cold is coming on’ or ‘I am coming down with something’ … nothing happens, the symptoms go away in a few hours.
To remind readers, the AZ vaccine was fundamentally different from those produced by Pfizer and Moderna. The AZ vaccine used a modified chimpanzee adenovirus to introduce its payload (engineered DNA) into cells. This DNA was in turn transcribed into mRNA which in turn was translated into the now fabled ‘spike protein. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines however introduced only the mRNA into the cell by loading it into fatty microspheres which can then merge with cell membranes and discharge their mRNA payload. 2
The end result, translation of the code to make the spike protein, and hence confer immunity to Covid-19 is pretty much the same for all vaccines save for the now famously debated data on side-effects.
It gets interesting though with the AZ adenovirus vector + DNA approach. In the wild, adenovirus enters cells efficiently because that is what the virus has evolved to do. It is a ruthlessly efficient hypodermic-style predator designed to breach the outer membranes and walls of animal cells and bacteria.
The engineered version, the so called vector, leverages the virus’ ability to get into cells but has within it now a custom payload, in this case rather than viral genes it’s now the DNA code to make the mRNA to make the spike protein3.
The ‘oops’ moment is almost certainly to do with what happens to the injected DNA long after entering the cell. We know the DNA ‘works’ because the spike protein gets made, so it is certainly transcribed and makes the target mRNA. Now, mRNA does not last long inside a cell, it cannot be repaired and so ultimately degrades and its molecules recycled. Not so with DNA.
DNA can be destroyed but it can also be protected and repaired. Also adenoviruses can enter a cell intact and have long preyed on mitochondria2, deliberately down-regulating them to stop mitochondria doing one of their jobs, ie destroying virus infected cells.
To cut a complex story short, AZ’s DNA, just as happens with natural virus DNA, will inevitably be found just ‘hanging around’ in the nucleus: in micronuclei in the cytoplasm and inside mitochondria. In the latter, like in the nucleus we now know that there are plenty of repair enzymes to keep it going. So in short, artificially introduced DNA unlike mRNA is likely to persist. If it persists it will be transcribed unless actively prevented from doing so by the cell’s control mechanisms.
There is also no reason for such semi-integrated DNA to be transcribed completely faithfully, spike proteins could easily become spike-like proteins.
So it is no great step of imagination to speculate that we the AV recipients, have a population of ‘infected’ cells, not being terminated by mitochondria, and turning out viral proteins either through the normal cytosolic ribosomes or using the mitochondrial ribosomes. Either way these proteins will involve the inevitable ‘prepping’ of the immune system on an ongoing basis.
Referring to my previous post on mitochondria and Covid immunity. It made the link between 'prepped innate immune sytem and the mitochondria in monocytes and their progenitors cells which are particularly plentiful and active. These cells would be likely targets for the adenovirus vectors and the source of long term memory.
Non-target immunity’ would sum this up nicely. Just don’t tell the anti-vaxxers they may envy my modified genetics.
2). 2019;63(1):111-116. doi: 10.4149/av_2019_114.
Localization of human recombinant adenoviral vectors to the mitochondria following transduction of human cell lines
B J Morrison, M Abu-Asab, J C Morris, J C Steel
3)https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/health/oxford-astrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine.html
