FAQ
Status: 04/02/2022 10:52 a.m
The corona pandemic has supported the development of mRNA vaccines. This technology was actually developed to treat cancer. Research is also progressing in this area.
How do mRNA vaccines work?
The basic idea behind mRNA technology is that a vaccine contains messenger substances (messenger RNA) that contain the blueprint for a specific protein. During vaccination, these messenger substances penetrate the cells at the puncture site and cause them to produce this protein for a short time. This protein is recognized as a foreign body by the human immune system, which it fights and remembers.
How do mRNA vaccines work once morest cancer?
The coronavirus vaccines familiarize the human body with the invader, specifically the spike protein that gives it its crown-like appearance. This helps protect you from infection and disease.
mRNA vaccines, on the other hand, are used to treat rather than prevent cancer. For the past 30 years, researchers have studied how mRNA technology can be used to treat cancer. His goal is to train the immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells. Cancer cells, on the other hand, have a lot in common with normal cells. Tumor cells can also hide from the immune system or slow it down. As a result, developing an mRNA vaccine once morest an endogenous cancer is much more difficult than developing a vaccine once morest a foreign invader like the coronavirus.
How far is the research?
Patients with various types of cancer are already being tested on mRNA technology. However, the number of people who took part in the study is still small. For example, BioNTech is currently conducting a Phase II trial of using an mRNA vaccine to treat melanoma. The blueprints for four different proteins are included in this vaccine. At least one of these is produced by the cancer cells of 90% of all patients with melanoma. However, abnormal cells come in a variety of shapes and sizes in many types of cancer. This eliminates the possibility of developing a vaccine that can be used by multiple patients.
mRNA technology, on the other hand, can be used to treat just one tumor. To do this, cancer cells are taken from a patient’s body and their genomes are compared with healthy cells. This allows researchers to determine which parts of the cancer cell’s blueprint are faulty and which proteins are produced as a result. The immune system then recognizes these proteins and responds accurately to the malignant cells as a result of a tailored vaccination. Since mRNA can now be produced relatively easily and quickly in the laboratory, mRNA technology can now be used to fund cancer treatment.
Has the corona pandemic advanced research?
Without the preliminary work from cancer research, the development of coronavirus mRNA vaccines in such a short time would never have been possible. However, the billions of mRNA vaccines that have been used are now helping cancer research. A lot of information on tolerability, vaccination reactions and side effects was collected within a short time.
When are mRNA vaccines likely to be used in the fight once morest cancer?
It will be several years before mRNA technology is used to treat cancer in the real world. It will initially only be available as a therapy for certain types of cancer and then only in combination with other treatments. As a result, mRNA technology is unlikely to be a cure for cancer. However, it can help transform cancer from an often fatal disease to a chronic condition that patients can live with for years.
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