mRNA (MESSENGER RIBONUCLEIC ACID)

1.Context

The result of the trial of an experimental cancer vaccine built on the messenger ribonucleic acid made by Moderna and MSD has shown promising results.

A small study with 157 patients was conducted. The vaccine showed a 44%reduction in the risk of dying of cancer or having the cancer progress.

2.Concerns

As a personalized vaccine, it is tailor-made for every patient. So it is expected to be expensive to make.

The results too will have to be independently scrutinized by experts.

3.How Does The Vaccine Work

The personalized cancer vaccine uses the same messenger-RNA technology that was used to produce the COVID vaccine. It allows the body's immune system to seek and destroy the cancerous cell, in this case, melanoma, but with the hope that it could lead to new ways to fight other types of cancers too.

4.RNA

RNA as a therapeutic was first promoted in 1989 after the development of a broadly applicable in vitro transfection technique.

 m RNA offers a strong safety advantage. As the minimal genetic construct, it harbours only the elements directly required for the expression of the encoded protein.

5.Refinement in Vaccine

• The m RNA is notoriously unstable. Researchers have learned how to engineer a stable form of it and deliver these molecules to the body through vaccines.
• Once in the body, m RNA instructs cells that take up the vaccine to produce the protein that may stimulate an immune response against these same proteins when they are present in intact viruses or tumor cell
• The personalized cancer vaccine works in concert with Merck’s Keytruda to disable a protein called programmed death 1, or PD-1 that helps tumor to evade the immune system. To build the vaccine the researchers took samples of the patient's tumours and healthy tissue.
• After analyzing the samples to decode their genetic sequence and isolate mutant proteins associated only with cancer, that information was used to design a tailor-made cancer vaccine. When injected into a patient, the patient's cells act as a manufacturing plant, producing perfect copies of the mutations for the immune system to recognize and destroy. Having been exposed to the mutations without the virus, the body learns to fight off the infection.

6.Prospects In Future

CAR-T cells and bi-specific antibodies among newer cancer therapies have already produced spectacular results

In CAR –T treatments, scientists take the immune system's cells out, engineer them to target specific cancer, and then put them back in the body to kill the cancer cells, bispecific antibodies attach to immune system cells with one arm and cancer cells with the other, thereby bringing powerful immune system killer cells right next to the cancer cells.