They are developing an mRNA vaccine that produces a strong immune response in brain cancer patients.
According to the magazine cell As explained by Europa Press, which had access to the study, the results obtained in this new analysis are very similar to the results of 10 canine patients who suffered from this type of tumor. The animal owners approved of the participation, since if they did not obey him, they would die. Now they will take it one step further and will approve phase I pediatric clinical trials.
Even though the race to try to stop cancer continues. This advance represents a new way to recruit the immune system to fight tumors that are resistant to treatment.
How does the vaccine work?
Scientists have been researching these types of vaccines for years. The first thing this group did was use iteration mRNA and lipid nanoparticles similar to those used for coronavirus vaccines. Although they are similar, they have two key differences. First, using the patient’s own tumor cells to create a personalized vaccine. On the other hand, the vaccine has recently developed a complex administration mechanism.
In this sense, as Elias Sayur, the study’s lead author and pediatric oncologist at the University of Florida, explained, instead of injecting “individual particles,” they decided to inoculate groups of particles that “envelop each other, like a bag full of onions.” .
In addition, the pioneer of the new vaccine assures that this, like others immunotherapy, tries to explain to the “immune system” that a tumor is something foreign to the body. Moreover, they carried this out in the context of cancer because these groups alert the “immune system” “much more deeply” than “individual particles” would.
Fast and effective vaccine
What surprised scientists after the doses were administered was how quickly the new method, administered intravenously, rejected the evil mass. So, Dr. Sayur reports that in less than 48 hours, they saw these “cold” tumors – with minimal immune response – become “hot” and therefore very active. “It was very surprising,” he says. This allowed them to realize that they were able to “very quickly activate the initial part of the immune system against these cancers.” Something fundamental to revealing the “consequences of the immune response.”
The study was conducted on four patients. To evaluate the response and effectiveness of the vaccine, They extracted genetic material –RNA– from tumors surgically removed from each patient. They then amplified the mRNA and wrapped it in a new design.
In turn, Duane Mitchell, director of the UF Institute for Clinical and Translational Sciences and the UF Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program and co-author of the paper, expects that they will see that creating an mRNA cancer vaccine in this way generates responses similar and strong in mice, dogs and people. This is a “really important” discovery.
The results surprised all scientists. Although they intended to evaluate the “clinical effects of the vaccine,” they realized that patients who received the developed dose They lived “free from disease longer than expected.”
The next step, the study says, will be an expanded Phase I clinical trial that will enroll up to 24 adults and children to test the findings. It is assumed that after confirmation of the optimal and safe dose 25 children will take part in the second stage.