Science Sub-Journal: Penn and Yale University jointly develop a new field of mRNA vaccines

January 5, 2022/eMedClub News/---mRNA technology research has a history of more than 20 years.
After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the rapid development and high efficiency of mRNA vaccines have attracted widespread attention in this field
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Currently, mRNA vaccines are being widely developed for the prevention and treatment of various diseases
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 Recently, a research team led by Dr.
Erol Fikrig of Yale University and Dr.
Drew Weissman of the University of Pennsylvania has developed an mRNA-based vaccine designed to prevent Lyme disease by targeting the salivary protein of ticks
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 The researchers used 19 different mRNA mixtures to encode several key proteins that can remind the human immune system to respond to the presence of ticks and also hinder the ability of ticks to eat
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The research results were published in Science Translational Medicine under the title "mRNA vaccination induces tick resistance and prevents transmission of the Lyme disease agent"
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Vaccines usually target pathogens or pathogen elements.
As ticks carry a large number of pathogens, tick bites can cause the spread of many diseases.
Therefore, this vaccine targets the salivary protein of ticks, rather than specific tick-borne disease pathogens
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 To test the effectiveness of this vaccine against Lyme disease, the researchers used guinea pigs as an animal model
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After immunizing guinea pigs with mRNA vaccines, the researchers found that they successfully produced antibodies against many specific proteins in the vaccine, indicating that the vaccination did trigger a humoral immune response
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 ▲ The mechanism of tick transmission and the mechanism of action of the mRNA vaccine (picture source: Science) After attacking guinea pigs with ticks, the researchers found that compared with unvaccinated guinea pigs, the vaccinated guinea pigs had early erythema or bite sites Local redness of the skin
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According to the researchers, a response in the form of erythema may increase the likelihood that the human host will recognize and eliminate ticks, which may prevent the spread of bacterial pathogens from the start
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 Dr.
John Aucott of the Lyme Disease Clinical Research Center at Johns Hopkins University explained: “Only 30% of Lyme disease patients are aware of a tick bite, which means that 70% of people never know they have been bitten by a tick.

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If you can make it 70% or all of the more irritating insect bites, tick, so that people will as soon as possible to remove ticks, which can prevent many of Lyme disease
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"in addition to early erythema, vaccinated guinea pigs also showed Similar to the immune rejection reaction of ticks, poor feeding and shedding of ticks
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When a tick with an infectious source bites and is not removed, guinea pigs vaccinated with the vaccine will not be infected, and 60% of unvaccinated guinea pigs are infected
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When three ticks bite and are not removed, the vaccine's protective effect on guinea pigs will be weakened, but the ticks attached to the guinea pigs vaccinated cannot eat actively and fall off faster
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 Dr.
Fikrig said: “There are many types of tick-borne diseases.
Compared with vaccines against specific pathogens, this method may provide broader protection
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It can also be combined with traditional pathogen-based vaccines to improve its efficacy
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"For Fikrig, the shift from targeting disease pathogens to targeting disease transmission vectors represents a shift in scientific thinking
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"In my opinion, the most important point of this research is that this is the first time it has been targeted at infectious diseases.
The vaccine is not directed against the infection itself, but against arthropods (ticks)
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"Fikrig said, "We hope that some of the principles learned from ticks can be applied to other arthropod-borne diseases
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"The application of mRNA vaccines.
mRNA vaccines have a broad application prospect.
In addition to being used to prevent infectious diseases, mRNA vaccines have also brought new light to the treatment of tumors, rare diseases, and autoimmune diseases
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 mRNA vaccines have broad prospects in the field of tumor immunity.
Application prospects.
So far, it has been widely used in the treatment of various types of tumors including prostate cancer, acute myeloid leukemia, metastatic melanoma, lung cancer and so on
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It is worth mentioning that the "mRNA three giants" Moderna, BioNtech and CureVac It has a layout in this field
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 On November 19, 2021, BioNTech announced that the US FDA has granted its mRNA cancer vaccine BNT111 fast track qualification for the treatment of advanced melanoma
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Recommended reading: BioNTech’s mRNA cancer vaccine has been approved by the US FDA Channel qualification for the treatment of advanced melanoma Medical Maimen broke the news on November 11, 2020, Moderna announced the encouraging results of its personalized cancer vaccine mRNA-4157 combined with Keytruda in clinical trials.
The combination therapy is in the head The disease control rate in cervical squamous cell carcinoma reaches 90%
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Recommended reading: Disease control rate reaches 90%! mRNA tumor vaccine combined PD-1 showed strong anti-tumor activity Medical Mai Shu Meng broke the news Furthermore, CureVac tumor mRNA vaccine against melanoma and other tumor mRNA vaccine CV8102 as well as non-small cell lung cancer CV9202 have entered Phase I clinical
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The previously published phase Ib data of CV9202 showed that the drug was well tolerated
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 mRNA vaccines can also be used for the treatment of rare diseases, such as Moderna's mRNA-3704 for the treatment of methylmalonic acidemia and mRNA-3927 for the treatment of propionic acidemia
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 mRNA vaccines are also widely used in the field of autoimmune diseases
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On January 7, 2021, BioNTech published an article in the Science journal to develop a non-inflammatory mRNA vaccine for the treatment of multiple sclerosis
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This marks the first application of BioNTech's use of its mRNA technology to advance autoimmunity, which can easily be extended to other antigen-specific autoimmune diseases
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 There is no doubt that mRNA vaccines have become a hot field.
Based on its broad prospects, more and more companies are devoted to the development of this field.
It is believed that with the continuous development of mRNA technology, mRNA-based vaccines are used in various diseases.
In the treatment application, will further develop its powerful potential
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 Reference materials: 1.
https:// /vaccines/lyme-disease-vaccine-uses-mrna-to-encode-tick-saliva-proteins/3.
mRNA vaccination induces tick resistance and prevents transmission of the Lyme disease agent DOI: 10.
1126/scitranslmed.
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