A clinically applicable mRNA cancer immunotherapy vaccine has been developed by BioNTech, a biotechnology company developing individualised cancer immunotherapies and TRON, the translational oncology department at the Johannes Gutenberg University
BioNTech and TRON published a paper in the scientific journal Nature, describing the first example worldwide of the clinically relevant and systemic mRNA cancer immunotherapy.
The paper outlines a novel approach to target a nanoparticle mRNA vaccine (RNA-LPX) body-wide to dendritic cells in the spleen, lymph nodes and bone marrow, where a highly potent, dual-mechanism immune response mimicking a natural antiviral immune response is rapidly elicited, according to BioNTech.
The dual mechanism involves both adaptive (T-cell-mediated) and innate (type-I interferon (IFN)-mediated) immune responses, with the IFN response being essential for full anti-tumour effects of the vaccines.
Ugur Sahin, CEO of BioNTech said: “Our study introduces a novel class of extraordinarily potent cancer vaccines that enables efficient redirection of the immune system against a wide range of tumour antigens.
“This is a major step towards our aim to make truly personalised cancer immunotherapies available and applicable to all cancer types.”
The publication presents new findings from BioNTech, TRON, Research Center for Immunotherapy (FZI) and partners at the University Medical Center at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the Heidelberg University Hospital.
The Group has pioneered individually tailored mRNA cancer vaccines and aims to progress clinical development to provide cancer patients and their treating physicians with new therapy options, according to BioNTech.
The paper further provides mode of action and efficacy data for this novel vaccine class in several preclinical tumour models and reports early data from a phase I dose-escalation, safety and tolerability trial of an intravenous RNA-LPX vaccine in melanoma patients.
The phase I melanoma study continues to recruit patients and BioNTech said it is planning and executing additional RNA-LPX vaccine studies for different cancer types.
The study entitled “Systemic RNA delivery to dendritic cells exploits antiviral defense for cancer immunotherapy” can be found here.