A team of German scientists from the Johannes Gutenberg University, the Heidelberg University Hospital or the BionTech AG center, led by the expert Ugur Sahin, has made a positive advance towards personalized treatment of any type of cancer. The finding has been published in the journal Nature.
The innovative method devised by the researchers is centered in the body’s immune system: by stimulating the innate immune response against viruses, the vaccine acts against cancer molecules as if it were a viral infection . The RNA nanoparticle-based vaccine has proven successful in experiments with mice and in three patients with advanced melanoma.
Research with rodents initially focused on characteristic cells of the immune system, dendritic cells, by using a vaccine administered intravenously, composed of RNA-lipoplex nanoparticles, discovering that the adjustment of the net electrical charge of the Nanoparticles proved ideal for successfully targeting dendritic cells. The first results generated a strong T cell response and consequent rejection of progressive tumors in several mouse tumor models.
“The study presents a new class of extraordinarily powerful cancer vaccines that allow effective targeting of the immune system against a wide range of tumor antigens. This is an important step towards truly personalized cancer immunotherapies applicable to all types of cancer, ”says Sahin, leader of the work.
