mRNA-From COVID-19 Treatment to Cancer Immunotherapy - PubMed (original) (raw)

Review

mRNA-From COVID-19 Treatment to Cancer Immunotherapy

Werner Krause. Biomedicines. 2023.

Abstract

This review provides an overview covering mRNA from its use in the COVID-19 pandemic to cancer immunotherapy, starting from the selection of appropriate antigens, tumor-associated and tumor-specific antigens, neoantigens, the basics of optimizing the mRNA molecule in terms of stability, efficacy, and tolerability, choosing the best formulation and the optimal route of administration, to summarizing current clinical trials of mRNA vaccines in tumor therapy.

Keywords: COVID-19; cancer vaccine; clinical applications; immunotherapy; mRNA; neoantigens; tumor antigens.

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Conflict of interest statement

Krause is a retired employee of Bayer AG, Berlin, Germany.

Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

(A): General structure of mRNA containing the four nucleobases adenine, cystine, guanine, and uracil, linked to ribose. The resulting nucleosides are connected via phosphate groups. The starting (5′ cap) position is formed by 7-methylguanosine with a three-phosphate moiety as a linker to the first nucleotide. At the end of the molecule, multiple adenosine moieties are attached. A codon comprises three nucleotides, for example, AUG, which is the code for methionine. (B): Functional structure of mRNA; details of functions are provided in Table 1. 5′ UTR: 5′ untranslated region. 3′ UTR: 3′ untranslated region. Poly(A)tail: multiple adenosine units.

Figure 2

Figure 2

Structure of saRNA containing an additional replicase section.

Figure 3

Figure 3

Major types of cancer immunotherapy with their benefits in green and their downsides in red.

Figure 4

Figure 4

Development of cancer heterogeneity and formation of neoantigens. Treatment with a drug (A, B, C, D, or E) can result in cure, partial remission, or primary resistance that can progress to metastases and/or to mutation resulting in new cancer entities presenting neoantigens. Primary tumor: formula image. Tumor cells expressing neoantigens A formula image, B formula image, or C formula image.

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