According to the expert, in the future vaccines will be used to treat diseases such as cancer or Alzheimer’s disease.
The director of the Institute of Clinical Immunology and Infectious Diseases of Malaga, Fernando Fariñas, highlighted the achievements in the field of vaccines and assured that in the future they will be used to treat autoimmune diseases, combat certain types of cancer or combat neurological diseases. such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease or Lewy body dementia.
“In the not too distant future, vaccines will treat and cure non-communicable diseases. We are on the verge of a paradigm shift: therapeutic vaccines that treat, not just prevent, diseases. This reality also opens the door to personalized vaccines. – said Fariñas during his speech at the round table “New vaccines, platforms and administration systems”, held as part of the XII Congress of the Spanish Association of Vaccinologists.
Additionally, these areas are complemented by steps being taken in therapeutic vaccine trials to combat central nervous system tumors, high blood pressure, smoking, or reduce the negative effects caused by certain treatments such as fentanyl (which generates greater toxicity in the body) .
There are currently more than 300 clinical trials investigating this therapeutic vaccine approach worldwide; and some of them (vaccine against lung cancer and melanoma) are carried out in Spain.
More precisely, some studies to cure lung cancer are in an advanced clinical phase, that is, they have already passed the safety stage, and their effectiveness is being assessed. If the results were positive, we would move on to the third phase – the clinic, but, as this expert in the field of immunology and immunoinfectology says, “it is very likely that none of these vaccines will complete all clinical trials before 2030.”
In this spirit, the head of the Institute of Clinical Immunology and Infectious Diseases of Malaga sent a positive but cautious message: “The future will be better, of course we will have vaccines to treat diseases such as some types of cancer or dementia, but be careful here, many of the ongoing investigations will not pass, will remain in the background.
Fariñas explained that research in this area is advancing primarily due to the important progress achieved through a technology called messenger RNA, the same technology that has been used in some Covid-19 vaccines, which has led to more interest and funding.
The method, he noted, involves using genetic material that, when injected, sends information to cells to make a protein that triggers an immune response against the tumor that attacks them without harming healthy cells.
Another benefit that stands out is that it will be a less aggressive treatment than other, more traditional approaches such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Moreover, the effectiveness of these vaccines will increase if they can be used in the early stages of the disease.
Towards personalized vaccines combined with immunotherapy
This technology, based on the use of tumors’ own proteins, opens the door to the creation of personalized vaccines. “Tumors express proteins and they may be specific to a certain type of cancer and therefore appear in all people suffering from it, but if there are patients who express another different protein that does not appear in others, we will be able to create vaccines with with their proteins to fight their tumor: we are talking about personalized vaccines,” Fariñas said.
In addition, ongoing trials also show that the effectiveness of this vaccination system increases significantly if it is used in combination with immunotherapy, which is currently prescribed to thousands of patients with various types of cancer, in most cases the use of so-called monoclonal antibodies.
“For example, immunotherapy against melanoma on its own has significant efficacy, but when combined with a messenger RNA vaccine, that protection is greatly increased, and so the philosophy is to use both systems in combination,” Fariñas said.