Russian scientists have given the world a new hope in the fight against the infamous cancer. An mRNA-based vaccine that uses a virus to train the immune system to fight cancer cells and a customised vaccine that trains immune cells specific to the patient’s cancer cells.
Russia’s federal medical-biological agency (FMBA) has claimed that its vaccine is safe for clinical use, as FMBA’s chief, Veronika Skvortsova, said that the past three years have demonstrated the safety of the vaccine even with repeated use and have shown “high efficacy” in decreasing the size of tumours and slowing cancer growth.
The vaccines in question are:
- Oncolytic vaccine: EnteroMix
- Personalised mRNA vaccine
What is an Oncolytic vaccine?
NMRRC, in collaboration with the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, has created an Oncolytic vaccine – EnteroMix. The drug uses a combination of 4 non-pathogenic viruses that can destroy malignant cells while also initiating the patient’s antitumor immunity. After years of preclinical research, scientists have confirmed the effectiveness and safety of the drug. This drug trains the immune cells to recognise and destroy the cancer cells in the body without harming patients’ normal healthy cells, which was the case for chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
What is a personalised mRNA vaccine?
It is still being developed at the National Medical Research Radiological Centre of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation in cooperation with the Gamaleya Institute.
This vaccine will be customised for each patient. According to the genetic analysis of the tumour cells of each patient, a unique vaccine will be created that will teach patients’ immune cells to recognise cancer cells and destroy them. For this, a unique software platform has been developed that will determine an individual’s mutation profile, known as neo-antigens, and will design a vaccine for an individual’s tumour “portrait”.
The difference between these vaccines:
The main difference lies in the mechanism of action. EnteroMix uses a combination of four already known viruses and will be a generalised treatment for cancer. At the same time, an mRNA vaccine will work on a molecular level and train the patient’s immune cells in such a way that they could kill or weaken the cancer cells.
Result
After the initial clinical trial with 48 participants, the outcome was positive with patients showing not only slow tumour growth but also 60% – 80% reduction of tumour. This meant a better chance of survival for patients who took this treatment.
Moreover, the vaccine did not show any negative effects that were seen in traditional chemo and radiotherapy, like hair loss, weakened immunity, nausea and damage to normal body cells.
The treatment for cancer with vaccinotherapy has been the talk of the show worldwide, which uses mRNA technology to design a cancer vaccine. India is also working on oral, breast and cervical cancer vaccines. But as Russia has announced its readiness for clinical use, it would establish it as one of the first personalised mRNA cancer vaccines to reach the public market. This vaccine success means new hope for cancer patients worldwide.
