Cancer is one of the worst diseases that can affect humans – if not the worst. Among its most deadly variants is glioblastoma, known as brain cancer. It is very aggressive and has few treatment options. But that could be about to change.
This is because a small clinical trial carried out on humans showed that an mRNA vaccine was able to quickly mobilize the immune system to combat tumors, bringing results that give hope.
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Glioblastoma is the most common form of brain cancer, with the most common treatment today involving surgery to remove the tumor, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but it almost always comes back.
After diagnosis, patients only live one year, with only around 5% surviving more than five years.
mRNA vaccine to combat brain cancer
O New Atlas brings that the study of this mRNA vaccine comes from researchers at the University of Florida (USA), published in celland remembers that the technology is best known for its effectiveness in immunizing against Covid-19.
In the case of glioblastoma, when tested on rats, dogs and, now, humans, it was shown to be able to quickly alert the immune system to attack this type of brain cancer more effectively.
- mRNA molecules are, in short, natural blueprints, which tell cells which proteins to produce;
- When engineered to produce harmless versions of pathogen-associated proteins, the immune system can learn to combat the real threat should it arise;
- With the real success of this type of treatment in the Covid-19 pandemic, there have been numerous attempts to adapt it to combat cancer;
- However, the current study team emphasizes that it has two important advances:
- The vaccine is personalized based on samples taken from the patient’s own tumor cells;
- The delivery mechanism is more complex, thus producing a stronger immunological reaction.
Instead of injecting single particles, we are injecting clusters of particles that wrap around each other like onions, like a bag full of onions.
In less than 48 hours, we could see these tumors changing from what we call ‘cold’ – immune cold, very few immune cells, very muted immune response – to ‘hot’ and very active immune response, given how quickly this happened, and what that told us is that we were able to activate the early part of the immune system very quickly against these cancers. This is critical to unlocking the downstream effects of the immune response.
Elias Sayour, senior author of the study
The small clinical trial, approved by the FDA (a type of Anvisa in the USA), was carried out to test safety and feasibility based on analyzes of four patients affected by glioblastoma.
Then, RNA was extracted from each patient’s tumor after they were surgically removed. Next, the mRNA was amplified and returned to the particle clusters, and was then injected into patients, triggering a positive response from the immune system.
However, the researchers said it was too early to accurately assess the clinical effects of the discovery. The fact is that the disease took longer to manifest itself again in the volunteers, in addition to surviving longer than the expected average.
The next stage will be an expanded Phase 1 trial, which may include up to 24 patients, in order to determine the ideal and safe dose for humans. Phase 2 should include 25 children as patients.
