Adam Clore, director of development & innovation at Integrated DNA Technologies, shares the achievements and objectives of mRNA vaccines; from the 1990s to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the hopes for the future.
Key insights:
- mRNA vaccines are currently being tailored to unlock personalised cancer treatment through patient-specific targeting strategies.
- Synthetic 5’ cap analogs can be integrated into mRNA to shield it from exonucleases and immune sensors while mediating binding to the eukaryotic initiation factor during translation.
- More research is crucial to uncover the delivery mechanism and safety profiles of LNPs. LNP-mRNA vaccines can be stored in sucrose solutions to keep LNPs apart and stable.
One of the many lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic was that our immune system was still the ultimate way to combat disease. Building on the success of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, more than 155 mRNA-based vaccines are in the clinical pipeline today, with market value expected to surpass $2 billion by 2026. The question remains: What makes mRNA-based medicine so compelling, and what are the challenges in vaccine development?