mRNA Technology’s Promise Has Led To A Cancer Vaccine

The World Health Organization notes that medical researchers have known for more than a half-century that RNA has properties that make it effective for stimulating our immune systems. Using mRNA, a gene-produced protein could temporarily be introduced into a body to attack a virus or other infectious agent. Manufacturing RNA-based products, however, was a little more difficult to do. Also, there was the issue of RNA-associated inflammatory responses that held back the technology from being used.

A delivery system was needed to get the mRNA into cells which would also help mitigate the inflammatory response. Work on lipid-encapsulated nanoparticles over 40 years eventually produced a stable means to get mRNA contained in vaccines into body cells. The lipid nanoparticles were negatively charged, allowing them to penetrate cellular membranes where they could then release instructions for the cell to produce proteins that would trigger a whole-body immune response. Lipid nanoparticles were seen as preferable to using hollowed-out viruses in delivering mRNA. The particles were bigger than viruses. They could carry larger loads, were less complex, and were easier to reproduce consistently and in large volumes. Researchers into vaccine delivery systems could envision a future using mRNA vaccines to treat all manner of diseases. The global SARS-Cov2 pandemic was the first to see mRNA vaccines. Future mRNA vaccines could target Malaria, Dengue, Influenza, Chikungunya and other disease threats. But cancers? Really?

In the journal, Cell, an article on May 9, 2024, described using a novel mRNA vaccine to treat cancers. The vaccine was created at the University of Florida’s RNA Engineering Laboratory. After administering the vaccine to 10 pet dog patients all suffering from glioblastoma they lived on average 139 days compared to the 30 to 60-day mean for dogs not treated with the vaccine.

Four human patients with terminal brain cancer were then enrolled as volunteers to test the vaccine. Genetic material was harvested from the tumour cells of each. That genetic material was then amplified and encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles before being reinjected into the patients.

Dr. Elias Sayour, a University of Florida Pediatric Oncologist, and senior author of the paper describes the initial results in a May 1, 2024 news release.

“In less than 48 hours, we could see these tumours shifting from what we refer to as ‘cold’ — immune cold, very few immune cells, very silenced immune response — to ‘hot,’ very active immune response…That was very surprising given how quickly this happened, and what that told us is we were able to activate the early part of the immune system very rapidly against these cancers, and that’s critical to unlock the later effects of the immune response.”

Glioblastomas in humans have a median survival of around 15 months. The current standard of care includes surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. A vaccine that could stimulate the body’s response to destroy the cancer would be far less stressful on the patient and a significant medical breakthrough.

Bonnie Freeman, Professor of Pediatric Oncology Research states “I am hopeful that this could be a new paradigm for how we treat patients, a new platform technology for how we can modulate the immune system.”

A biotech company, iOncologi Inc., has been spun out of the patented research and will license and produce the vaccine.