Messenger RNA: a cancer vaccine “within a few years”

Will messenger RNA technology revolutionize medicine? It has already played an important role in research on vaccines against Covid-19 and has been used by the Pfizer and Moderna laboratories which were the first to develop products, which are not far from being the most effective against the virus – 97% and 92% respectively. In an interview published last Friday with the American agency Associated Pressthe German scientist Ozlem Tureci, co-founder of BioNTech, announced that her laboratory is studying this process of messenger RNA to develop a vaccine against cancer.

“A few years from now”

In his interview, Ozlem Tureci recalled that the company has been working for some time to apply messenger RNA technology against cancers. This work was interrupted due to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and the need to quickly find a vaccine. Now that it has been developed and is highly effective, researchers are now turning to the fight against cancer. “We have several different cancer vaccines that are based on messenger RNA”, indicated the researcher.

For the time being, no date of placing on the market has been advanced. “It is very difficult to make predictions in the field of innovation developmentshe conceded. But we expect that within a few years we will have managed to complete our vaccines in such a way that we can offer them to people..” With its success in the manufacture of an anti-Covid vaccine, the company has received numerous funds and financing which will help it to develop other vaccines, such as the one against cancer. “That It pays to make bold decisions and trust that if you have an amazing team, you’ll be able to solve any problem and obstacle that comes your way in time.”, concluded Ozlem Tureci.

What is messenger RNA?

Messenger RNA, mRNA or message ribonucleic acid, refers to the copy made of a piece of DNA of one or more genes. As Inserm describes it, our cells need protein to function. The blueprints for making these proteins – our genes – are “kept well protected inside the cell nucleus”. However, the factories that synthesize proteins – the ribosomes – are located outside this nucleus. “Therefore, the manufacture of proteins is not carried out from the original plans, but based on their ‘duplicate’: the messenger RNAs“, continues Inserm. mRNAs are therefore molecules responsible for transmitting the information coded in our genome, to allow the synthesis of the proteins necessary for the functioning of our cells. “When a cell needs a protein, the blueprint for making that protein is ‘photocopied’. The copy thus generated – a messenger RNA – is then exported out of the nucleus and joins the ribosomes where it allows the synthesis of the requested protein. Very unstable and fragile, this copy is then quickly destroyed.”

By observing this system, researchers had the idea of ​​using these messenger RNAs to develop vaccines, usually based on the administration of an attenuated or inactivated infectious agent. “The objective is to trigger a immune response directed against the pathogen, associated with the production of memory cells that will protect us in the event of subsequent infection. With messenger RNA vaccines, the idea is to let our cells make the component against which our body will learn to defend itself.”, deciphers Inserm. Thus, the organism is injected with a messenger RNA which corresponds to the production plan of a protein of the targeted virus against which the organism will train to fight. “The advantage of this approach is that RNAs are much simpler and faster to produce than the components of ‘classic’ vaccines. Its drawback: the fragility of these small molecules of ribonucleic acid means that vaccine preparations must be kept at an extremely low temperature.”, concludes the Institute.