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Vaccine for Cancer & Heart Disease Soon? Studies Show ‘Tremendous Promise’ | Details Inside


Last Updated: April 08, 2023, 11:00 IST

The possible mRNA-based cancer vaccine is supposed to detect the growing cancer cells in the body (News18)

The possible mRNA-based cancer vaccine is supposed to detect the growing cancer cells in the body (News18)

Vaccine maker Moderna could offer such vaccines and treatments for “all sorts of disease areas” in under five years

The coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent rollout of vaccines to protect against the virus, was another reminder of how getting inoculated proved vital in preventing something deadly. However, a pharmaceutical firm has now suggested that people could soon be able to get vaccinated against cancer, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases, and other conditions.

According to a report by The Guardian, the jabs will be ready by 2030. With “tremendous promise” being shown in several studies conducted into these vaccines, millions of lives could be saved. The news report further states that significant progress was made in the past 12 to 18 months, because of the success of the Covid jab, without which, the stage reached now could have taken about 15 years.

Vaccine maker Moderna could offer such vaccines and treatments for “all sorts of disease areas” in under five years, Dr Paul Burton, the chief medical officer of the company was quoted as saying by The Guardian. The pharmaceutical company was also responsible for creating a Covid vaccine and is now working towards creating a vaccine that can target cancer with several tumor types.

Vaccine for Multiple Respiratory Infections, mRNA Therapies

“If not millions, hundreds of thousand lives could be saved with the customised cancer vaccines against multiple types of tumor, and will cater to people across the globe,” Paul Burton said. He also talked about Moderna’s possible expansion of its Covid vaccine, which could target multiple respiratory infections — flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) — apart from Covid.

Burton also talked about mRNA therapies for diseases that presently don’t have any drugs or prescriptions for treatment. Under mRNA therapy, blood cells are taught how to make a protein that could possibly create an immune response against a specific disease.

He went on to say that in 10 years or so, genetic diseases and their exact cause could be traceable and getting rid of them could be simpler. “With relative simplicity, one can go and edit the genetic cause of disease out and mRNA-based technology could help repair it,” he told The Guardian.

Vaccine to Attack Cancer Without Destroying Healthy Cells

The possible mRNA-based cancer vaccine is supposed to detect the growing cancer cells in the body, attack them and ensure the healthy cells are still intact, Paul Burton explained. The vaccine will contain a molecule that instructs cells to make proteins.

The mRNA molecule would first identify the protein fragments on the surface of cancer cells that are not present on healthy cells. The vaccine is ideally supposed to felicitate an immune response and subsequently create pieces of mRNA that will manufacture them.

Here’s How The Cancer Vaccine Will Work

The first step in the direction of making these mRNA-based vaccines work, would be to take a biopsy of a patient’s tumour and send it to a lab. Once the doctor does that, body’s genetic material is sequenced to identify mutations that aren’t present in healthy cells.

Next, an algorithm will recognise the mutations responsible for driving the cancer’s growth. This is when the role of mRNAs comes in. Its most promising antigens are manufactured and packaged into a personalised vaccine.

FDA Grants Designation Upon Trials of Cancer & RSV Vaccines

Moderna had recently run a trial of its experimental mRNA vaccine for the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The result was 83.7% effective at preventing at least two symptoms, such as cough and fever, The Guardian stated in a report. The experiment was carried out in adults aged 60 and older.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted the vaccine breakthrough therapy designation. The same designation was granted to Moderna’s personalized cancer vaccine in February this year, after seeing results in patients with the skin cancer melanoma.

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