The challenge and prospect of mRNA therapeutics landscape

Messenger RNA (mRNA)-based therapeutics hold the potential to cause a major revolution in the pharmaceutical industry because they can be used for precise and individualized therapy, and enable patients to produce therapeutic proteins in their own bodies without struggling with the comprehensive manufacturing issues associated with recombinant proteins. Compared with the current therapeutics, the production of mRNA is much cost-effective, faster and more flexible because it can be easily produced by in vitro transcription, and the process is independent of mRNA sequence. Moreover, mRNA vaccines allow people to develop personalized medications based on sequencing results and/or personalized conditions rapidly. Along with the great potential from bench to bedside, technical obstacles facing mRNA pharmaceuticals are also obvious. The stability, immunogenicity, translation efficiency, and delivery are all pivotal issues need to be addressed. In the recently published research results, these issues are gradually being overcome by state-of-the-art development technologies. In this review, we describe the structural properties and modification technologies of mRNA, summarize the latest advances in developing mRNA delivery systems, review the preclinical and clinical applications, and put forward our views on the prospect and challenges of developing mRNA into a new class of drug.