mRNA vaccines do not stop with COVID-19

mRNA vaccines have won the competition for early COVID-19 vaccine approval because of their advantages compared with viral-vectored vaccines, such as favourable tolerance, ease of degradation, flexibility to respond to new SARS-CoV-2 variants, clinically proven capability to elicit humoral and cellular immunity, and rapid and cost-effective production.1Munro APS Janani L Cornelius V et al.Safety and immunogenicity of seven COVID-19 vaccines as a third dose (booster) following two doses of ChAdOx1 nCov-19 or BNT162b2 in the UK (COV-BOOST): a blinded, multicentre, randomised, controlled, phase 2 trial.Lancet. 2021; 398: 2258-2276Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (349) Google Scholar, 2Baden LR El Sahly HM Essink B et al.Efficacy and safety of the mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.N Engl J Med. 2021; 384: 403-416Crossref PubMed Scopus (5560) Google Scholar, 3Polack FP Thomas SJ Kitchin N et al.Safety and efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.N Engl J Med. 2020; 383: 2603-2615Crossref PubMed Scopus (8199) Google Scholar Beyond COVID-19, clinical trials of therapeutic anticancer mRNA vaccines are well underway. However, several challenges remain regarding the immunogenicity and effectiveness of mRNA vaccines, including the identification of personalised cancer neoantigens and the validation of the most viable delivery approaches. Encouragingly, results from a recent phase 1 trial showed that a personalised mRNA vaccine—autogene cevumeran—evoked neoantigen-specific T cells in 50% of patients with surgically resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), and delayed PDAC recurrence.4Rojas LA Sethna Z Soares KC et al.Personalized RNA neoantigen vaccines stimulate T cells in pancreatic cancer.Nature. 2023; 618: 144-150Crossref PubMed Scopus (0) Google Scholar Although many clinical trials of anticancer mRNA vaccines are still in the early phases, this field is rapidly progressing. With the ongoing optimisation of mRNA vaccine structure, stability, and administration approaches, mRNA vaccines are realising their potential as a key strategy for future cancer treatment, especially in combination with other immunotherapies. We declare no competing interests. This was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82071021; awarded to XS) and the Key R&D Project of Shandong Province (2020CXGC011302 and 2022CXPT023; awarded to XS).