Filenews 25 August 2025
An experimental mRNA vaccine opens up new avenues in cancer treatment, as in preclinical studies in mice it activated the immune system and managed to eliminate cancerous tumours. This development reinforces expectations for the development of a universal cancer vaccine, which could offer new weapons to the medical community and change the course of treatment in multiple forms of the disease.
In their study, researchers from the University of Florida discovered that the general activation of the immune system that triggers the vaccine makes tumours vulnerable. When combined with immunotherapy drugs, resistant tumours shrank — and in some cases, the vaccine alone managed to eliminate them.
The mRNA vaccine boosts immunotherapy
The study, published in the scientific journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, showed that the experimental mRNA vaccine significantly enhanced the anticancer effect of immunotherapy in mice. The combination of the vaccine with checkpoint inhibitors led to a strong immune response against tumours.
An unexpected discovery
What is remarkable, according to the researchers, is that the results were achieved without targeting any specific cancer protein. Instead, the vaccine tricked the immune system into reacting as if it were dealing with a virus, boosting the production of the PD-L1 protein within tumours and making them more vulnerable to treatment.
The head of the study, Dr. Elias Sayur, a paediatric oncologist at the University of Florida, said the results open up a new avenue in cancer treatment with potential applications to various forms of resistant tumours.
The vision for a universal vaccine
"This study describes a completely unexpected and fascinating observation: that even a non-personalized vaccine — as long as it's mRNA — can trigger a potent anti-cancer effect," Sayur said. According to him, this is a "proof of principle" that such vaccines could in the future become commercially available as universal cancer vaccines, activating the immune system against each patient's tumour.
A third option
To date, the two main strategies for cancer vaccines have been either targeting common proteins found in many tumours, or fully personalizing based on each patient's specific cancer characteristics.
"Our study proposes a third approach," said co-author Dr. Dwayne Mitchell. "We designed a vaccine not to directly target cancer, but to trigger a strong immune response — and that was enough to have a strong anti-cancer effect. This can even lead to 'ready-to-use' vaccines," he explained.
From Personalization to Generalization
The new study builds on previous research by the Sayur team, in which a personalized mRNA vaccine, based on cells from a patient's brain tumour, elicited a strong immune response and slowed the progression of gliblastoma in a human clinical trial.
In the new study, the researchers modified the technology to create a generic mRNA vaccine — not for any virus or mutated cells, but to boost the body's overall defenses. The formula is similar to that of COVID-19 vaccines, without targeting any specific viral agent.
In melanoma models in mice, combining the vaccine mRNA with a PD-1 inhibitor (a monoclonal antibody that "trains" the immune system to see the tumour as a foreign) had very good results. In models of skin, bone, and brain cancer, the vaccine wiped out tumours in some cases.
Activation of T cells
The researchers observed that activating the immune system through an mRNA vaccine can "wake up" T cells that were previously dormant, causing the cancer to multiply and eliminate — as long as the stimulus is strong enough.
Now, the research team is working to improve the current formulations and proceed to human clinical trials as soon as possible.
SOURCE: ertnews / SciTechDaily
