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The new technology of ‘messenger RNA’ has been deployed in developing a rather successful vaccine against Covid-19. Can the science behind the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines help humanity fight other major diseases like cancer and HIV? Research is on, and we could be at the dawn of a new era.
mRNA technology, in fact, began with the aim of treating diseases like cancer. Infectious diseases, however, are easy targets, and the pandemic provided an opportunity to test out innovations. The Moderna vaccine was the first mRNA-based therapeutics to gain authorization for use.
mRNA makes use of the body’s genetic blueprint. Traditional vaccines use the virus – alive or dead – to train the immune system to recognize it the next time it encounters the killer. The mRNA vaccine has not the virus but the genetic code of its part (the spike protein), and then teaches the body to generate the same. That way, the immune system learns to recognize the virus. [https://www.biospace.com/article/mrna-tech-used-in-covid-19-vaccines-could-be-used-to-cure-hiv-cancer-and-other-diseases/]
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel believes the Covid vaccine is only the beginning. He hopes the technology will help treat almost everything from heart disease to cancer – especially rare genetic conditions. [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-07-14/moderna-mrna-targets-hiv-cancer-flu-zika-after-covid-vaccine]
Moderna has drugs in trials for all three of these categories. It is already at work to develop mRNA-based personalized cancer vaccines. [https://www.modernatx.com/pipeline/therapeutic-areas/mrna-personalized-cancer-vaccines-and-immuno-oncology] First, mutations on a patient’s cancer cells (“neoepitopes”) are identified. A vaccine would then be prepared for each of the mutations, loading all of them into a single mRNA molecule. Once injected, the vaccine hopefully will cause the patient’s cells to churn out the selected neoepitopes, training the immune system to recognize cancer cells better.
In HIV, the difficulty is that infects immune cells, specifically T-cells, which are often the immune cells vaccines stimulate. But researchers at Scripps University in California are working on an HIV vaccine using mRNA tech.
Research is on to leverage the new technology for several other diseases too. Preclinical data shows mRNA offers hope in treating autoimmune diseases. A paper published in the Science journal describes disease-suppressing effects of a non-inflammatory, nucleoside-modified mRNA vaccine in mouse models of multiple sclerosis. [https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6525/145]
Also read:
https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd.2017.243
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9459683/Could-COVID-vaccine-help-cure-HIV-cancer.html
https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/the-americas/how-mrna-covid-19-vaccines-could-mean-hiv-cures-and-anti-cancer-jabs-1.1218153
https://www.insider.com/vaccines-for-cancer-hiv-coming-thanks-to-covid-19-vaccine-2021-4