After COVID-19, mRNA vaccine may treat influenza, HIV and even cancer

Vaccines to protect yourself from severe illness and death with COVID-19 began as the key to returning to normal, but open up even more possibilities for future health care.

The mRNA vaccine technology used by Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna for their respective corona virus vaccines comes from doctors and public health authorities. A modern miracle of science A means to revolutionize vaccine development.

“We cannot overestimate the impact this has on human health,” said Nilswalter, a professor of biochemistry who has been studying mRNA for nearly 30 years at the University of Michigan. “It’s like introducing the iPhone when everyone had a foldable cell phone.”

In addition to the use of COVID-19, numerous mRNA vaccine candidates have undergone research and clinical trials for the treatment of cancers including pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer, melanoma, HIV, influenza, Ebola, deer, and rabies. I am.

“The same molecules that gave us life billions of years ago are back to what afflicts us today, terrible diseases like viral infections and cancer,” Walter said. Said. “It’s transformative.”

Vaccines that use mRNA technology work by giving instructions to cells. For COVID-19, these instructions are to create a protein that mimics the spike protein found in SARS-CoV-2. This triggers an immune response and develops antibodies that protect against the virus.

Unlike previously used viral vector vaccines, mRNA vaccines do not introduce live or dead viruses into the body as a means of inducing antibody production.

The components of the vaccine are broken down and discarded within a few days. Health officials have repeatedly stated that mRNA does not enter the cell’s nucleus and does not interact with the cell’s DNA.

Dr. Liam Sullivan, an infectious disease specialist at Spectrum Health, hopes that mRNA technology will “revolutionize vaccine development.”

“This is just the beginning; we’re just scratching the surface here,” he said. “RNA vaccine technology for treating illness goes nowhere. If anything, it will get better and more widely used.”

Earlier vaccines, such as annual influenza vaccinations, can take a year to develop, making it difficult to predict which strains will be available by the next influenza cycle. As a result, the effectiveness of influenza vaccination is changing year by year.

According to Walter, RNA vaccines can reduce that timeline by a factor of 10.

“We can now run at the same speed as viruses, so viruses can no longer beat us, and vaccines can be tailored to specifications in a very short amount of time,” he said. “This is a completely different ball game.”

Research into vaccine mRNA technology dates back decades, but within the last decade, efforts have improved. During the coronavirus pandemic, increased funding and large patient flows enabled large-scale trials and tested ongoing research.

As a result, Pfizer and Moderna introduced their respective vaccines and proved to be effective in protecting against serious illness caused by COVID-19. In February, unvaccinated Michigans were 16 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than vaccinated individuals, according to data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

According to data collected by, worldwide, more than 604 million doses of Pfizer vaccine and more than 145 million doses of Modana Shot were administered as of Sunday, April 24. rice field. Data of our world..

In Michigan, more than 6.8 million Pfizer shots and more than 4.2 million Moderna vaccines have been given. An additional 3.1 million boosts of the two mRNA vaccines have been effective in recent months.

Given the effectiveness of the first large-scale mRNA vaccine, Walter said there is no doubt that the technique will prove applicable to many other diseases in the future.

“We have to design different things and try different things, but not all work as beautifully as we did against the coronavirus,” he said. “But I think there are solutions for most viruses and other illnesses that are involved in activating the immune response and doing something against the illness.”

In January, Moderna announced the start of its clinical trials. Experimental HIV vaccine.. Researchers hope that by delivering mRNA, they “induce B cell responses and lead to premature maturation in a direction that broadly neutralizes antibody development.”

A phase I trial of the drug is underway to evaluate the safety and efficacy of shots in 56 HIV-negative adult volunteers who will be monitored 6 months after receiving the drug. Some individuals receive a single dose. Some receive two and some receive a booster after the first dose.

According to the National Cancer Institute, researchers have also been testing mRNA-based cancer treatment vaccines in small trials for nearly a decade, with promising early results.

The idea is to retrain the immune system to develop an mRNA vaccine that disguises itself and detects and attacks cancer cells that have developed into tumors. By doing so, researchers theorize that cancer can be treated.

“Currently, all pharmaceutical companies are investing billions of dollars in developing these mRNA vaccines as anti-cancer drugs,” Walter said.

Although the mRNA vaccine against cancer has not been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, the success of the COVID-19 vaccine is expected to help accelerate clinical research.

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