OK, so in response to Stewie’s concerns about the spike protein and my own, I did some reading. Here’s what I found.
First, the spike protein can do damage on its own.
- SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Induces Degradation of Junctional Proteins That Maintain Endothelial Barrier Integrity
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.687783/full
- SARS-CoV-2 spike protein alone may cause lung damage
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-04-sars-cov-spike-protein-lung.html
- Spike Proteins of SARS-CoV-2 Induce Pathological Changes in Molecular Delivery and Metabolic Function in the Brain Endothelial Cells
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/13/10/2021/htm
However, the covid vaccine spike protein is not quite the same as the one in the virus, and this means that it shouldn’t be able to do any damage on its own.
- “The spike proteins from the virus and the ones generated by the vaccines are “essentially the same,” McLellan, the spike protein researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, told us, noting that they have the same function, structure and way of processing.
But, he said, there is “one key difference,” in that the spikes encoded by the vaccines “contain 2 amino acid changes that help stabilize the spike in its initial conformation and help prevent the spike from undergoing a conformational change that is required to facilitate membrane fusion.”
That’s because the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is a shape-shifter. To fuse its viral membrane with the host cell membrane it substantially changes its shape from an unstable pre-fusion state to a stable post-fusion state. While previously working on a vaccine for MERS, a disease caused by another coronavirus, McLellan and others discovered that by adding two proline molecules to the spike protein, they could lock it into its pre-fusion state, triggering a more effective immune response and preventing cell entry. The same harmless mutation, called 2P, as in two proline molecules, is used in the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.”
https://www.factcheck.org/2021/07/scicheck-covid-19-vaccine-generated-spike-protein-is-safe-contrary-to-viral-claims/
So what happens to the vaccine spike proteins?
- “The study found that the majority of the spike protein degrades within 24 hours, which provides more understanding about the process of infection and vaccination. Since mRNA vaccines work by giving instructions to our cells to make the spike protein, this finding gives insight into how long the newly made protein will be present.”
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210729122126.htm - “A key mechanistic point regarding the safety of the vaccines has been that the spike protein does not get to freely float around in the blood where it might be able to cause these deleterious effects we discussed earlier. We know that the spike protein does not get secreted because it lacks the signal sequence for that, and the protein as specified by the mRNA is membrane bound.”
https://www.deplatformdisease.com/blog/spike-protein-circulating-in-the-vaccinated-what-does-it-mean
This is a blog post, not journal, but reads well.
- “When the tissue cells and dendritic cells recognize the spike proteins as unwelcome visitors, the cells place sections of the spike proteins on their exterior for other cells to see. The dendritic cells also release “danger” signals at the same time to let other cells know that the spike protein presents a threat. The danger signals are like flashing neon yellow signs pointing to the displayed spike protein piece saying, “This does not belong!”
https://theconversation.com/what-happens-when-the-covid-19-vaccines-enter-the-body-a-road-map-for-kids-and-grown-ups-164624
I dunno about the proline inserts being totally harmless though.
Seneff and Nigh postulate that the spike protein is a prion protein having guanosine at either end of its amino acid sequence. If a prion protein, then misfolding of the protein due to proline inserts could lead to prion disease.
Paper on this published in May 2021 issue of Journal of vaccine theory, practice and research.
Though the threat of this seems low at this point, with a few reported cases of CJD in vaccinated people, but not enough to raise alarm or questions.
As for the spike protein remaining on the cell membrane, the S1 and S2 portions of the S protein has a furine cleavage site a bit like the tear here dotted line. Your furine would then cut the S protein into two at the cleavage site releasing the S2 portion into the blood stream while the S1 portion remains on the cell membrane.
I guess having that having the S1 portion on the cell membrane “sticking out” means your body’s defences are like to target the protein rather than the cell itself. I don’t know if any further research has been done to corroborate this claim. Dr Sucharit Bhakdi (microbiologist and virologist) actually said on many occassions (and in his books) that your lymphocytes attacks the epilthelial cells from which the spike protein protrudes. I think more research needs to be done here.
Finally be very careful with information from John Hopkins university and Universty of North Carolina at Chappel Hill. They are a big stake in this MRNA thing.
Thanks for that. What’s disappointing is the condescending lack of information given in government explanations about how this works. It was not easy to find out that the spike protein in the vaccine was different from the one in the virus. Looks like the PR chicks really are as dumb as I thought they were.
With my limited knowledge it seems posible that the vaccine protein could become a bad CJD like prion, but as you say it’s pretty unlikely. Then again, I was barred from giving blood in Australia for a decade or more because of the time I’d been in the UK during the mad cow disease epidemic so CJD can take a while to emerge.
The S1/S2 thing seems to be related to the AZ blod clots. I’m not clear about that yet so won’t comment further.
Good article Robert – thanks for following up my questions from yesterday. There are some good links there.