Victory of the first Covid-19 vaccine raises hopes for the fight against cancer-World News

The first vaccine against Covid-19 is more than just a landmark in the fight against a pandemic. They are also a stepping stone to unconventional techniques that can defeat other illnesses that one day avoided doctors, from cancer to heart disease.

Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc. In a partnership between BioNTech SE and BioNTech SE, a genetic material called messenger RNA is used to effectively transform the body’s own cells into a vaccine factory. This approach has never been used outside of clinical experiments and was surprised even by some of the most enthusiastic supporters by how well it worked against the coronavirus.

Currently, one vaccine is licensed in the United States and the other is right behind, so pandemic validation could open up a whole new medical field.

“We are now in the era of mRNA therapy,” said Derrick Rossi, a former Harvard stem cell biologist who helped establish Moderna in 2010. Investment and resources will increase. “

In a sense, the global epidemic was a perfect proof of new technology, as well-funded backers, including Pfizer, began to take risks. However, the effort was possible as BioNTech and Moderna Inc. have been working on messenger RNA for years.

This technique directs cells to make all kinds of proteins and transforms them into small production lines of drugs and vaccines. One of the major drawbacks is that messenger RNA is fragile and must reach cells before the body can break down. Coronavirus vaccines are made by using a modified version of mRNA and coating it with fat nanoparticles.

BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin began researching cancer technology about 20 years ago with his wife, Ozlem Tureci, an immunologist who co-founded the company. Sahin states that using what he learned from the development of cancer vaccines, his team was able to act quickly on the Covid project.

As a result, Sahin’s ability to evaluate multiple candidates in parallel is “really beautiful,” Sahin said in an interview.

According to Sahin, the first messenger RNA drug approval in the oncology field could be obtained in a few years. Rossi, on the other hand, predicts that virtually all infectious disease vaccines will use this technology in 10 or 2 years. This is partly because it is much faster and cheaper. The scientist still owns a stake in Moderna, but he is no longer associated with the company.

All or zero

There is no guarantee that they are correct. The risk of failure depends on all scientific pursuits.

But in addition to cancer, mRNA companies such as Moderna, BioNTech, and Translate Bio Inc. are involved in influenza vaccines, heart failure treatment, cystic fibrosis, a common pathogen called cytomegalovirus, and perhaps all the biggest challenges. We are working to take advantage of some HIV technology, which has avoided vaccine researchers for 40 years.

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel recalls when he left the diagnostics company established almost 10 years ago, he warned his wife that the chances of success for a new employer were less than 5%. But if so, he told her, the upside down would be huge.

“It’s not going to be a drug company,” he recalled in a telephone interview. “We either fail and become zero, or we succeed and become an industry.”

One of the relatively quick wins for messenger RNA could be a better vaccine against seasonal flu. Influenza kills as many as 650,000 people each year, and existing vaccines produce about six months earlier, based on speculation based on health officials’ knowledge of which strains are most likely to circulate at that time. Often it only works partially because it needs to be started.

Production will begin later and mRNA guesses may be reduced. “Once we get closer to what the coronavirus vaccine is showing, it will be a big improvement,” said Matthias Kromayer, a partner at MIGAG, an early venture capital advocate at BioNTech.

Also, according to Modana’s Bansel, if you need regular booster shots against Covid, you can combine the flu vaccine with a coronavirus booster to eliminate all winter respiratory virus concerns.

More importantly, messenger RNA may help produce vaccines against viruses that have bypassed traditional approaches. After Covid, Moderna’s most advanced program is a vaccine against cytomegalovirus, which can cause birth defects when inherited from a pregnant mother to the foetation. Scientists have been trying to develop an attack on this virus for 50 years, but Moderna believes that mRNA technology gives it an edge. The early results of the mid-term exam are promising and the final exam may start next year.

Big Pharma Interest

The company is also a pharmaceutical company, Merck & Co. We are also working on a cancer vaccine with. In a study published in November, the Moderna vaccine in combination with Merck’s blockbuster immunosuppressant Keytruda helped shrink tumors in 5 out of 10 patients with advanced head and neck cancer.

In addition to Merck, other major pharmaceutical companies from AstraZeneca Plc to Roche Holding AG are involved. According to Roche CEO Severin Schwan, mRNA is undoubtedly an important method in the future. Roche, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of oncology drugs, is working with BioNTech to develop personalized cancer vaccines.

“The door is open here,” Schwann said in an interview. “This is real clinical data, so it was reconfirmed via Covid-19. That’s a good reason to invest more.”

However, in addition to Covid-19, almost all mRNA drugs and vaccines remain in the early stages of human testing. While recent success may herald other infectious disease vaccines, the impact on oncology is less clear, as cancer has developed many defenses to evade the immune system.

“We can’t simply say that other mRNA vaccines work because they are being validated in the field of mRNA vaccines,” says Sahin of BioNTech. “All approaches need to address a variety of biological and medical challenges.”

Cancer treatment

Most of BioNTech’s research outside of Covid focuses on cancer. There is the idea of ​​treating the disease rather than preventing it. The company is trying several different approaches with the aim of finding a clear sequence of human tumors and coding mRNA to tell immune cells how to attack those tumor cells.

The cash flow from the success of the coronavirus vaccine will also enable German biotechnology to drive cancer patient trials. One of BioNTech’s cancer vaccines elicited a strong response and, in some cases, reduced tumors in patients with advanced melanoma in 89 trials published this summer. According to the CEO, the first efficacy data from studies of cancer patients may be published late next year or early 2022.

BioNTech is also working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on an mRNA approach to HIV. This has traditionally avoided vaccine researchers because the virus can hide inside the cell. Human testing has not yet begun on the project.

science fiction

Some potential future uses sound like science fiction for now. BioNTech is conducting early research on whether mRNA can be used to reprogram cells for regenerative medicine. In the future, scientists may be able to design target nanoparticles that accumulate in certain types of tissues, such as bone marrow, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania, used by both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Drew Weissman, who helped develop the mRNA technology, said. vaccine. This allows doctors to treat genetic diseases such as sickle cell anemia with a simple intravenous injection of targeted mRNA therapy.

“It has great potential,” Weissman said. “I can’t even make a list of the various things it could potentially use.”