mRNA vaccines: A novel weapon to control infectious diseases

Abstract

Infectious diseases have always threatened human life, but with the development of vaccines, effective strategies for preventing and controlling these diseases have become available. The global outbreak of COVID-19 ushered in the advent of mRNA vaccine technologies, which quickly led to the introduction of mRNA vaccines effective against SARS-CoV-2. The success of this approach has stimulated research into the use of mRNA vaccines in the fight against other emerging as well as remerging infectious diseases. This review examines the constructive strategies and delivery systems used in mRNA vaccines and provides an overview of current clinical trials of those vaccines in the prevention of infectious diseases. The underlying mechanisms of mRNA vaccines are also discussed, including the double-edged sword of the innate immune response. Finally, the challenges but also the potential of mRNA vaccines are considered.

The clinical progress and challenges of mRNA vaccines

“…In addition, the depletion of uridine is beneficial to protein expression, because the unwinding recognition of some mRNAs, such as RIG‐I, is positively correlated with the content of uridine, but increasing the content ratio of GC codons can improve the stability of mRNA (Courel et al, 2019; Gillen et al, 2021). The presence of uridines and cytidines leads to the production of double‐strand RNA, a translation byproduct that can trigger innate immune responses, resulting in the inhibition of protein synthesis or even cell death (Tian et al, 2022). A common approach to purify IVT mRNA is to replace uridines and cytidines with 5‐methyluridine (m 5 U) and pseudouridine (ψ) (Y. Wang et al, 2021).…”

“…Various mRNA engineering techniques, including chemical modification, codon optimization, and sequence optimization have drastically reduced the immunogenicity of mRNA and made them more stable and highly translatable (L. Miao et al, 2021). Additionally, mRNA is easily degraded by normal cellular processes, and even its in vivo half‐life can be regulated by using mRNA modifications and delivery methods (Tian et al, 2022). Second, mRNA vaccines allow the simultaneous delivery of multiple antigens, and in particular cancer, vaccination can cover various TAAs, TSAs, or cytokines to elicit humoral and cell‐mediated immune responses to enhance anticancer efficacy (M. J. Lin et al, 2022).…”

Cell‐Based Biomaterials for Coronavirus Disease 2019 Prevention and Therapy

“…[105] Recently, nucleic acid vaccines, which directly introduce viral antigen-encoded exogenous genes (DNA or RNA) into the body and induce the host to produce a specific immune response by synthesizing antigen proteins in the body, have attracted much attention, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. [106][107][108][109] However, nucleic acids are extremely unstable and prone to degradation by nucleases in biological environments. [110] Due to its own negative charge, it is difficult to pass through the cell membrane with the same negative charge.…”

mRNA vaccines for cancer immunotherapy

“…As with most drugs, side effects with mRNA-LNP vaccines often increase with dose. For example, for the mRNA-1273 vaccine, 100 μg of the dose showed good efficacy and minimal side effects, and 250 μg of the vaccine caused severe side effects, while the BNT162b2 vaccine at 30 μg showed better efficacy and minimal side effects ( 82 , 83 ). Anaphylactic reactions and inflammatory reactions have been observed with some COVID-19 mRNA-LNP vaccines, even at the recommended doses ( 84 – 86 ).…”