- Using the mRNA technology that has stopped covid, progress is being made in studies to treat some types of cancer
Several vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus have emerged from the pandemic. Professors Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci are behind the most successful vaccines against the virus responsible for the pandemic.
In 2008, they co-founded the German company BioNTech to exploit new technologies involving messenger RNA (mRNA) to treat cancer. When the pandemic hit, they partnered with Pfizer to use the same approach to create a covid vaccine.
Researchers now hope that this same technology could be useful in treating melanoma, bowel cancer and other types of cancers.
BioNTech has several studies underway, including one in which patients receive a personalized vaccine to trick their immune systems into attacking their disease.
mRNA technology works by sending instructions or signals to cells to make an antigen or protein.
In covid this antigen is part of the spike protein of the virus. In cancer it would be a marker on the surface of cancer cells. This teaches the immune system to recognize and attack affected cells for destruction.
Professor Tureci said: ‘The mRNA acts as a signal telling the body to make the drug or vaccine. When you use mRNA as a vaccine, it becomes a warning sign to find the “most wanted,” in this case: the cancer antigens that distinguish cancer cells from normal cells.
The potential of mRNA to produce vaccines hadn’t been demonstrated until the emergence of Covid-19. And the success of mRNA vaccines in the pandemic has encouraged scientists to work with this technology for cancer.
BioNTech’s mRNA cancer studies began long before the pandemic and have shown some encouraging early signs.
“Every step, every patient we treat in our cancer research helps us discover more about what we don’t think about and how to address it,” said Professor Tureci, chief medical officer at BioNTech.
“As scientists, we are always reluctant to say we will have a cure for cancer. We have a number of breakthroughs and will continue to work on them.”
Caution is needed. Many promising cancer experiments end in failure. It could be several years before BioNTech identifies effective treatments for colon cancer, melanoma, and other types of cancers that truly live up to the hype.
The legal landscape
There is no question that mRNA Covid vaccines have been successful, generating billions for BioNTech, Pfizer and Moderna. But there is huge legal controversy surrounding the innovation behind mRNA vaccines.
Moderna, the US company, has filed a lawsuit against Pfizer and BioNTech for patent infringement. They claim to have copied key elements of their mRNA technology.
BioNTech will vigorously defend itself against the allegations, as its innovations are original. In fact, they have spent 20 years of research developing this type of treatment, obviously they will fight for their intellectual property.
This controversy will not stop the release of Covid vaccines. It’s a technology that matured during the pandemic, but the question is can they fight cancer?
ORIGINAL NOTE: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-63247997
