Myocarditis and COVID-19 mRNA vaccines: a mechanistic hypothesis involving dsRNA

Gerard Milano; Jocelyn Gal; Anne Creisson; Emmanuel Chamorey

doi:10.2217/fvl-2021-0280

Myocarditis and COVID-19 mRNA vaccines: a mechanistic hypothesis involving dsRNA

Future Virol. 2021 Nov:10.2217/fvl-2021-0280. doi: 10.2217/fvl-2021-0280. Epub 2021 Dec 6.

Authors

Gerard Milano^{1 2}, Jocelyn Gal^{2 3}, Anne Creisson⁴, Emmanuel Chamorey^{2 3}

Affiliations

¹ Centre Antoine Lacassagne, Unité Propre de Recherche 7497, Université Côte d'Azur, 06100, Nice, France.
² Centre Antoine Lacassagne, UNS EA 7497 Nice University, 33 Avenue de Valombrose, 06189, Nice, France.
³ Epidemiology & Biostatistics Department, Centre Antoine Lacassagne, University Côte d'Azur, 33 Avenue de Valombrose, 06189, Nice, France.
⁴ Medical oncology Department, Centre Antoine Lacassagne, University Côte d'Azur, 33 Avenue de Valombrose, 06189, Nice, France.

Abstract

While tolerance to COVID-19 vaccination is considered satisfactory, a phenomenon of myocarditis, although rare, is becoming a safety concern in mRNA COVID-19 vaccination. The presence of low residual levels of double-strand RNA (dsRNA) has been reported in mRNA COVID-19 vaccine preparations. dsRNA is a known inducer of immune-inflammatory reactions. dsRNA present in vaccine nanoparticles may be suspected to be at the origin of the still unexplained cases of myocarditis.

Keywords: COVID-19; dsRNA; mRNA COVID-19 vaccines; myocarditis.

Publication types

Review