I believe that they manufactured the rna without access to the virus, just the genome.
I am not qualified to answer whether the spike protein is identical to the one in the virus, but from what I understand it is very close. The protein just doesn't have the virus attached. It's like having a factory manufacturing car door handles but no cars.
Things could go wrong, mostly because some folks may have allergic reactions, autoimmune flare ups, or the increased immune response can cause side effects like Bell's palsy. That said, mRNA breaks down quickly on its own, and the spike proteins will be cleaned up quickly. The odds of a serious complication are very, very, very, very low from the studies performed so far. (Expect some flu like symptoms, however, as your body fights the cells with the modified RNA.)
I'm a total layperson here, just synthesizing what I've read.
I'll add a point, because otherwise your answer was excellent:
This mechanism was once explored as a means of performing gene therapy in human beings (a couple of decades past). It was abandoned because of its utter failure to produce lasting genetic effects.
That's a big plus here: we have a well-explored platform for having the cells transiently produce a protein we want the immune system exposed to, but which we already know is useless at producing lasting effects. The only lasting effect here will be in the memory of the immune system, not in the cells affected by the shot.
Not particularly - I last read about them when I was a bio undergrad, and they weren't brand new then. The key words I'd use in google scholar are 'adenovirus vector mRNA', but be sure to restrict the timeline to pre-2020.
I am not qualified to answer whether the spike protein is identical to the one in the virus, but from what I understand it is very close. The protein just doesn't have the virus attached. It's like having a factory manufacturing car door handles but no cars.
Things could go wrong, mostly because some folks may have allergic reactions, autoimmune flare ups, or the increased immune response can cause side effects like Bell's palsy. That said, mRNA breaks down quickly on its own, and the spike proteins will be cleaned up quickly. The odds of a serious complication are very, very, very, very low from the studies performed so far. (Expect some flu like symptoms, however, as your body fights the cells with the modified RNA.)
I'm a total layperson here, just synthesizing what I've read.