Potential of mRNA vaccines to become versatile cancer vaccines

Abstract

For centuries, therapeutic cancer vaccines have been developed and tried clinically. Way back in the late 19 th century, the Father of Immunotherapy, William Coley had discovered that bacterial toxins were effective for inoperable sarcomas. In the 1970s, the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine was repurposed, e.g ., for advanced melanomas. Then, therapeutic cancer vaccines based on tumor-associated antigens (found on the surfaces of cancer cells) were tried clinically but apparently have not made a really significant clinical impact. For repurposed pathogen vaccines, only the BCG vaccine was approved in 1989 for local application to treat nonmuscle-invading bladder cancers. Although the mildly toxic vaccine adjuvants deliberately added to conventional pathogen vaccines are appropriate for seasonal applications, when repurposed for continual oncology usage, toxicity may be problematic. In 2010, even with the approval of sipuleucel-T as the very first cancer vaccine (dendritic cell) developed for designated prostate cancers, it has also not made a really significant clinical impact. Perhaps more "user friendly" cancer vaccines should be explored. As from approximately 30 years ago, the safety and effectiveness of mRNA vaccination for oncology had already been studied, the current coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, though disastrous, has given such progressively advancing technology a kickstart. For oncology, other virtues of mRNA vaccines seem advantageous, e.g., rapid and versatile development, convenient modular design, and entirely cell-free synthesis, are being progressively recognized. Moreover, mRNAs encoding various oncology antigens for vaccination may also be tested with the combi-nation of relatively non-toxic modalities of oncology treatments, e.g ., metformin or metronomic (low-dose, prolonged administration) chemotherapy. Admittedly, robust clinical data obtained through good quality clinical trials are mandatory.

Advancing Cancer Immunotherapy: The Potential of mRNA Vaccines As a Promising Therapeutic Approach

“…He proposed that bacterial toxins could induce immunity strong enough to destroy cancer cells. At the time, his achievement was overshadowed by the popularity of chemotherapy, [3] but now cancer vaccines have become one of the most promising emerging therapeutics for cancer treatment. The Food and Drug infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in cancer tissue are correlated with an increase in various malignancies.…”

“…He proposed that bacterial toxins could induce immunity strong enough to destroy cancer cells. At the time, his achievement was overshadowed by the popularity of chemotherapy, [ 3 ] but now cancer vaccines have become one of the most promising emerging therapeutics for cancer treatment. The Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) has approved two Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)‐T cells and six checkpoint blockade modulator immunotherapies, drawing significant attention to this approach.…”