Cancer

'Universal cancer vaccine' trains the immune system to kill any tumor

'Universal cancer vaccine' trains the immune system to kill any tumor
This new approach could pave the way to fighting any cancer
This new approach could pave the way to fighting any cancer
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This new approach could pave the way to fighting any cancer
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This new approach could pave the way to fighting any cancer

Following on from their breakthrough human trial that successfully reprogrammed the immune system to overpower glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumor, the same scientists have now further developed the mRNA vaccine to fight not one but any cancer. It has the potential to do away with chemotherapy, surgery and radiation treatment.

University of Florida (UF) scientists have developed an experimental vaccine that dramatically boosts the immune system’s ability to fight tumors – even without targeting a specific cancer type. This "general purpose" mRNA jab works in a similar way to a Covid-19 vaccine but with a different target; it instructs the body's immune cells to rally and hit any kind of tumor in the same way they would attack a viral spike protein.

“This paper describes a very unexpected and exciting observation: that even a vaccine not specific to any particular tumor or virus – so long as it is an mRNA vaccine – could lead to tumor-specific effects,” said Elias Sayour, a pediatric oncologist and principal investigator at the RNA Engineering Laboratory at UF. “This finding is a proof of concept that these vaccines potentially could be commercialized as universal cancer vaccines to sensitize the immune system against a patient’s individual tumor."

Sayour has spent a decade working to harness the power of mRNA science in order to effectively treat cancer. The success with the glioblastoma study led to broadening the treatment's scope, not targeting one kind of tumor but instead focusing on giving the body's immune system the tools to fight any kind of cancer cell. It's part of a growing body of evidence that suggests mRNA vaccines might be a serious weapon in fighting the disease.

While the formulation isn't unlike the Covid-19 vaccine, which uses lipid nanoparticles to deliver the genetic instructions to the body, it is still somewhat different. Instead of the drug encoding a virus protein, it sends a message to the immune system to rally the troops. It essentially tells the body to produce certain proteins that stimulate the immune system – including a protein within cancer cells known as PD-L1 (Programmed Death-Ligand 1), which makes tumors become more visible to immune cells.

The researchers found a way to induce PD-L1 expression inside tumors using a generalized mRNA vaccine, essentially tricking the cancer cell into exposing itself, so immunotherapy can be more effective.

In this study on mice with melanoma, the vaccine was able to clear existing tumors that had proven drug-resistant. In other cancer models, including brain, skin and bone, the drug was even able to wipe out tumors without the assistance of any other treatment.

This approach is a little unorthodox in a field moving increasingly more towards personalized medicine with a precise target in the crosshairs. Previous research has focused more on homing in on a target or tailoring a vaccine specific to a patient's own cancer profile.

"This study suggests a third emerging paradigm," said study co-author Duane Mitchell, MD. "What we found is by using a vaccine designed not to target cancer specifically but rather to stimulate a strong immunologic response, we could elicit a very strong anticancer reaction. And so this has significant potential to be broadly used across cancer patients – even possibly leading us to an off-the-shelf cancer vaccine."

Scientists first discovered how mRNA "instruction manuals" could stimulate immune cells (in mice) in 1993, but a major hurdle has been working out how to deliver them into the body effectively. Around a decade ago, a breakthrough came when researchers found that lipid nanoparticles could effectively transport the incredibly fragile mRNA into the body without it being broken down in the bloodstream.

Now, the technology has rapidly advanced, in part due to the development of Covid-19 vaccines.

This study marks a key moment in cancer immunotherapy, demonstrating how a generalized, off-the-shelf mRNA vaccine – not tailored to any specific cancer tumor – can awaken the immune system and amplify the effects of existing treatments. By exposing well-hidden tumors by ramping up PD-L1 expression, the researchers have uncovered a new pathway that could transform how we prime the body to fight cancer.

While the vaccine is still being tested in pre-clinical anima studies, this work lays the foundation for a universal cancer vaccine strategy – one that doesn’t rely on customizing treatment specific to each patient but instead teaches the immune system how to fight smarter.

"It could potentially be a universal way of waking up a patient’s own immune response to cancer," Mitchell said. "And that would be profound if generalizable to human studies."

The research was published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.

Source: University of Florida via EurekAlert

12 comments
12 comments
guzmanchinky
Not available for anti-vaxxers! I am so hopeful that science will blow through all these conspiracy theory nutjobs and finally cure cancer and the common cold amongst many others...
Robt
@guzmanchinky Firstly, there’s a heck of a difference between a vaccine that has gone through a formal six / seven year process to be approved by the FDA and one (Covid) that effectively used billions of people as guinea pigs after a development period of a couple of months. Secondly, the side effects that were labelled conspiracy theories simply for observing and reporting them, such as myocarditis, particularly in young healthy males are now acknowledged by the medical establishment because the evidence is overwhelming. As is the evidence that healthy people (i.e. no co-morbidities) under the age of sixty were in no particular danger. Thirdly and directly related, the vicious censorship of globally recognised epidemiologists who disagreed with the then emerging protocols for Covid treatment in general, such as forcing people to stay home, which was the worst possible reaction (see: Sweden’s refusal to lock down with no difference in death percentages). All of that type of dictatorial behaviour (arrested for surfing in CA etc.) by the establishment will, very naturally shatter trust in institutions that are supposedly designed to protect us, and it also leads to overreactions from people who are now understandably more than dubious about all vaccines and medical advances. It’s a shame, because there are some breathtaking advances coming down the the line, and their celebration will be muted because of prior ‘establishment’ behaviour.
Treon Verdery
The researchers are likely aware of this, BCG vaccination against tuberculosis causes double digit decrease of some cancer recurrence (bladder)
Tedwards
@Robt you are distantly looking at this with a hindsight approach. There is a difference between the information known at the time and the reactions taken by government as the knowledge is developing, vs looking back knowing now the overall impact and then judging those decisions.
We had an outbreak that they had no idea how badly it would impact each different section of the population, hindsight we know it isn't as bad as thought for the general popululous but yet still does have an impact. They were right to take a heavy handed approach as you look at all other historical pandemics that occurred and they were devastating. If the virus was just slightly more deadly we would have seen ridiculous number of deaths but we didn't know if it was or not.
Look at it from the governments perspective as its developing they were seeing large group of people affected and dying. They need to do something. Lockdown/masks and vaccines are the only two levers they had. I get the distrust but it's frustrating though that people keep saying "do your own research", yet the typical person that states that has absolutely no medical degree or even any understanding on how research actually works. Talking through with people I know who were highly anti both governmental mandates kept pretending that they knew what was best for everyone yet they actually have no idea how societies and pandemics work let alone how to actually read a research paper.
And the idea that the vaccine was only developed over a couple months is false. A SARS vaccine had been worked on for years. Specifically the mRNA protocols specifically for the exact virus group Covid19 is apart of. The couple months was an acceleration of it being specific to those strains.
Also whilst Sweden may not have locked down, over 80% of their population still took at least the first dose of the vaccine and also they were taking a gamble for herd immunity. As I say if there were longer term affects of covid contraction then they would have been screwed.
At the time its either you take the gamble of the vaccine which has been researched for over a decade and see the side effects, vs contracting Covid and gambling that those affects are less than the vaccines. I for one would definitely rather putting my trust in a researched vaccine vs a new unknown virus that is outbreaking and proven to kill a portion of the population.
On another note it's hilarious that a large portion of the anti-vax populace also regularly take recreational drugs where they have absolutely no idea what it is made up of but then are so highly anti taking a vaccine that has years of scientific development.
Chase
If the vaccine is mostly designed to trigger an overwhelming immune response, I wonder how likely it will be to also risk inducing an autoimmune disease. Like, cool, we cured your cancer... but now you have Lupus. Oops.
Techutante
@Robt Those side effects happened to .011% of people who took the covid vaccine out of approximately 5 billion doses, reported (About 55,000 people out of 5 billion). It was not a side effect of the vaccine, it was a side effect of genetics. Considering cancer is the worlds largest killer after Heart Disease, and combined with pneumonia which is often a side effect of a compromised immune system, I would say the odds are considerably in your favor to take literally any vaccine. Especially considering that just getting covid has roughly a .2% death rate in and of itself, among the average of people who contract it. (People under 17 fare somewhat better, but 50k people have been dying of Covid annually on average in the US alone.)
AV
This will never get to market.. The organisations that currently make huge amounts of money from the current cancer treatments will "make this dissapear".
Uncle Anonymous
One of our friends who had glioblastoma was in the original test group a couple of years ago and given approximately three to five months to live. With this treatment, he was 100% cancer free in three months. This included one chemotherapy treatment at the six-week mark. They had scheduled surgery for the three-month mark, but the tumour had diapered. It's been a few years, and he's 100% cancer free.
Mike Vidal
I would hope that what you’re saying. In. This article is true. I have stage four mastic castrate, resistant prostate cancer, which metastasized to the bone, and right now. The only thing that has put me what I believe is in. Remission. Has been a targeted radiation treatment, done via infusion. Earlier I had had Provenge, which is supposed to train your immune system to attack your cancer after they take out your white blood cells and trained them. Personally, I think that was a total flop as there was no change in my condition.
Karmudjun
Robt - Science is much more than repeated conspiracy tropes. The fact that the COVID-19 vaccines went through the equivalent of 4-5 years of testing in slightly more than 12 months is not magic in medicine. Concurrent trials yielded the data needed, and brilliant minds were collaborating on the steps. What you don't know are the many arms of research that in 5 or 6 months were shut down due to negative or unwanted results. But keep jumping on the anti-mRNA anti-vaxxer conspiracies. You can mine them until your death for all we in Medicine care.
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