system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Do mRNA vaccines actually get translated into proteins inside human cells or is the RNA sequence itself detected as foreign?

Sorry for yet another COVID vaccine question, but I haven’t seen the mechanism of the vaccine explained anywhere. I assume the shot will basically be a bunch of massively replicated strands of coronavirus spike mRNA... but what are the mechanisms  for immunity to occur? I assume if it were just the RNA itself creating a response, we might be able to use cDNA. Thanks!
gpt
It’s mostly the first, but also a little bit of the second. The cells do translate the mRNA into viral proteins, and the immune system develops antibodies against those viral proteins.

However, it is also true that the mRNA is recognized by the immune system as foreign, and the presence of the mRNA attracts immune system cells to the area around the injection, which ends up making it more likely for them to encounter the viral proteins.