How new mRNA technologies are advancing the race for a cancer vaccine

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Updated 28 April 2023
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How new mRNA technologies are advancing the race for a cancer vaccine

  • FII Institute Impact Report sheds light on promising developments in individualized vaccines for cancer patients
  • Thanks to the momentum of the COVID-19 pandemic, the same vaccine technology is currently used in experiments used to fight tumors

JEDDAH: Cancer — one word that can ruin the life of any human being. A word so soul-crushing that it brings disbelief, shock, fear, anger, and can break one’s spirit and the spirits of those around those diagnosed. Medical research has helped scientists develop methods of stopping cancer from metastasizing, but thanks to the momentum of the COVID-19 pandemic, promising new research may help end the battle against cancer.

A recent report released by the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute, entitled “Tumor No More: How Humanity Can Get Rid of Cancer,” has shed light on how mRNA (messenger RNA) technology is proving to be a promising opponent in the fight against cancer. By producing individualized vaccines for cancer patients, the mRNA technology once deemed absurd by the scientific community is starting to gain attention as scientists begin to tap into its potential thanks to the swift delivery of the world’s first mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine three years ago.

“This is one of the best examples of the positive impact that new technologies can have on humanity. And in this report we tried to find out how the mRNA success story might continue,” Richard Attais, CEO of FII Institute, told Arab News.

The job is simple: mRNA’s role is to carry protein information from the DNA of a cell’s nucleus to the cell’s cytoplasm (gelatinous interior). For vaccines, this works by introducing a segment of mRNA that corresponds to a viral protein, usually a tiny piece of a protein found on a virus’ outer membrane. 

The technology is not new. In early experiments, carrying messages to the intended target was deemed unstable and volatile. But not anymore.

The report’s findings look into how the technology may be used, the challenges of cancer therapy and vaccine studies, and, finally, possible proposals by the authors.




Shutterstock illustration image

Fast forward to 2020: Scientists discovered a substance to tame the unstable messenger using fat chemically. Known as “lipid nanoparticles,” these provide a stable and protective layer around the mRNA and unleash the message once a foreign body enters the human body, such was the case for COVID-19 infections. Then, the mRNA kills the virus’ proteins by building a protein specific to a virus, teaching the immune system how to behave when exposed to a potential threat.

“Capitalizing on the knowledge we gained about the use of mRNA technology during the COVID-19 vaccine’s development, we have an opportunity to address the challenges of equality and fairness now as we look toward the future distribution of a potential cancer vaccine. This is a challenge for humanity,” Safiye Kucukkaraca, head of THINK, FII Institute, told Arab News.




Infographic credit: FII: Cancer Vaccine Fairness Impact Report 2023

So how would this work to battle cancer?

Every cell contains protein, including cancer cells. A 2017 paper published in Nature magazine by BioNTech co-founder Ugur Sahin, entitled “Personalized RNA Mutanome Vaccines Mobilize Poly-Specific Therapeutic Immunity Against Cancer,” indicated that scientists were able to design and manufacture a vaccine unique to each cancer patient that had been diagnosed with melanoma. The results were auspicious, as the rate of cancer metastasizing was significantly reduced after the start of vaccination. 




BioNtech's CEO Ugur Sahin (R) speaks during a joint press conference with his wife co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of BioNTech Ozlem Tureci (C) and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at a BioNTech plant making mRNA-based vaccines and therapies in Marburg, Germany, on February 2, 2023. (AFP)

The only difference is that in COVID-19, mRNA can protect billions of people with one vaccine.

Cancer cells differ in each cancer patient, each with a unique genetic fingerprint. The difficulty lies in manufacturing the vaccine, as personalized mRNA vaccines must be developed for each patient. The process requires looking for a common protein in those cancer cells, constructing an mRNA strand that produces the same protein, creating the unique vaccine, and then vaccinating the patient with the mRNA. The immune system would then develop antibodies against the protein and combat tumor cells in cancer. 

Developing a separate vaccine for each tumor can only be made possible by the development of a reliable and fast technology for decoding genetic material, a method that is currently being tested in several medical labs across the world. 




Infographic credit: FII: Cancer Vaccine Fairness Impact Report 2023

Speed was essential for fighting COVID-19, such was the case with Moderna and BioNTech, two of the first companies to develop the vaccine. Speed will be as crucial for fighting individual cancer cases. Once the targeted structure is identified, the effort required to produce a specific mRNA for that target is relatively minor.

Several cancer vaccine technologies are already used in cancer patients, designed to stimulate the immune system in various ways to attack the tumor cells. The primary forms are protein/peptide-based vaccines, DNA or RNA-based vaccines, dendritic cell therapy, T-cell therapy, and CAR-T-cell therapy, all highly innovative therapeutic options.




Researchers test procedures for the manufacturing of the messenger RNA (mRNA) for the COVID-19 vaccine at a new manufacturing site of German company BioNTech on March 27, 2021 in Marburg, Germany. (Thomas Lohnes / AFP)

The report indicated that several clinical studies, often combined with other cancer therapies, are currently in the works, focusing on patients with advanced-stage melanoma, advanced lung cancer, and brain glioma (tumors that spread in the brain), to name a few. Several published findings showed promising results, whereas others are still forthcoming.

The report stressed the scalability of the technology, adding that it will probably take at least another five years before the first mRNA vaccine against cancer is approved. Though it may seem that it is still a long way off, there is hope for developing “a new and effective weapon.”




Infographic credit: FII: Cancer Vaccine Fairness Impact Report 2023

However, the road ahead is long and challenging.

According to Dr. Niels Halama, a professor of translational immunotherapy at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, “tumor cells have developed a number of very diverse mechanisms to protect themselves.” 

He noted in the report that some tumors grow without the immune system being able to detect them or stop them, raising the question if vaccines alone are enough to reverse the process of detecting them, adding that there are several clinical studies currently that could shed more light on the matter. 

Halama also noted that there are cancers, such as melanoma or lung cancer, that can respond well to immunotherapy.

“A significant proportion of patients respond and we know that the tumor allows the cells of the immune system to enter the tumor microenvironment. So, if you use a therapy that activates the immune system in the right way, you can kill the tumor,” he said, adding that it seems possible that vaccines could alter the response system for other cancers like pancreatic cancer or breast cancer that cannot be treated with immunotherapy.

Though many questions are still unanswered, Halama indicated that due to the COVID-19 vaccines, the structures of how mRNA is processed, packaged, and transferred to the individual have improved, unlike how it was before as molecules are known to having a short lifespan and quick to degrade. 

One other challenge highlighted in the report was risk. 

“Tumor vaccination is a therapy that is very well tolerated, with few to almost no side effects. But it is possible this will change in combination with other therapies, as some of them weaken or even overactivate the immune system,” said Halama.

Numerous studies are underway worldwide to test vaccines against a wide range of cancers, from lung cancer to melanoma, listed in an international database, ClinicalTrials.gov, which covers a variety of cancers.




This photo taken on November 17, 2021, shows a laboratory employee at work at the Transgene biotech firm, which is developing a neo-antigen cancer vaccine, in Illkirch-Graffenstaden, France. (AFP File)

For scientists and researchers, the challenge of selecting which type of cancer to use the vaccine therapy on, the stage of cancer, the mechanisms that tumors use to “hide from the immune system,” suitable candidates, a patient’s overall state of health, and what properties must a target structure have in order to be considered is massive due to the unpredictable nature of some cancers and further responses to various forms of therapies.

A significant portion of cancers in industrial nations are attributable to preventable environmental and occupational risks, posing another challenge.

The report clearly indicates that vaccines are not a miracle cure; in fact, it is merely “a tool in a big toolbox” as it has to be integrated into a comprehensive therapy plan with considerations for how it can be utilized alongside other methods such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and other immunotherapies.

Though the success of cancer therapies is increasing, there is still a need for additional, innovative research, as although researchers agree that mRNA vaccine technology has enormous potential, it is still in its infancy “in terms of concrete implementation.”

 


UN conference seeks boost for aid as US cuts bite

Updated 3 sec ago
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UN conference seeks boost for aid as US cuts bite

SEVILLE: A UN conference aiming to rally fresh support for development aid began in Spain on Monday with the sector in crisis as US-led funding cuts jeopardize the fight against poverty.
At least 50 world leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron, Kenya’s William Ruto, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and UN head Antonio Guterres are gathering in the city of Seville for the June 30-July 3 meeting.
Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa, Angolan leader Joao Lourenco and Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan also joined more than 4,000 delegates from businesses, civil society and financial institutions.
But the United States is snubbing the biggest such talks in a decade, underlining the erosion of international cooperation on combating hunger, disease and climate change.
A blistering heatwave that is scorching southern Europe welcomed the delegates to the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, an example of the extreme weather that scientists say human-driven climate change is fueling.
UN sustainable development goals set for 2030 are slipping from reach just as the world’s wealthiest countries are withdrawing funding for development programs.
US President Donald Trump’s gutting of his country’s development agency USAID is the standout example, but Germany, Britain and France are also making cuts as they boost spending in areas such as defense.
International charity Oxfam says the cuts to development aid are the largest since 1960 and the United Nations puts the growing gap in annual development finance at $4 trillion.
More than 800 million people live on less than $3 a day, according to the World Bank, with rising extreme poverty affecting sub-Saharan Africa in particular.
Disruption to global trade from Trump’s tariffs and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine have dealt further blows to the diplomatic cohesion necessary for concentrating efforts on helping countries escape poverty.


Among the key topics up for discussion is reforming international finance to help poorer countries shrug off a growing debt burden that inhibits their capacity to achieve progress in health and education.
The total external debt of the group of least developed countries has more than tripled in 15 years, according to UN data.
Critics have singled out US-based bulwarks of the post-World War II international financial system, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, for reform to improve their representation of the Global South.
Painstaking talks in New York in June produced a common declaration to be adopted in Seville that only went ahead after the United States walked out.
The document reaffirms commitment to the UN development goals such as eliminating poverty and hunger, promoting gender equality, reforming tax systems and international financial institutions.
The text also calls on development banks to triple their lending capacity, urges lenders to ensure predictable finance for essential social spending and for more cooperation against tax evasion.
Coalitions of countries will seek to spearhead initiatives in addition to the so-called “Seville Commitment,” which is not legally binding.
But campaigners have criticized the text for lacking ambition and have rung alarm bells about rising global inequality.
“Global development is desperately failing because... the interests of a very wealthy few are put over those of everyone else,” said Amitabh Behar, executive director of Oxfam International.
Hundreds of demonstrators braved the sizzling heat in Seville on Sunday to demand change in international tax, debt and aid policies.
“Global south countries will never be able to decide how they want to do development if they are bound to the new colonial debt,” protester Ilan Henzler, 28, told AFP.
“We are here to fight for the abolition of this illegitimate debt.”

China defends diplomats after Taiwan VP car ramming claims

Updated 17 min 55 sec ago
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China defends diplomats after Taiwan VP car ramming claims

BEIJING: China defended its diplomats on Monday after Taiwan accused Beijing’s embassy staff of planning to ram its vice president’s car during an official visit to Europe.
“Chinese diplomats overseas always respect their host country’s laws and regulations,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.
Taiwan’s top China policy body, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), said on Friday that Hsiao Bi-khim’s motorcade was surveilled and followed in a ploy to be rammed during a visit to the Czech Republic in March 2024.
Czech military intelligence spokesman Jan Pejsek told AFP on Sunday that Hsiao was targeted by “persons legalized in diplomatic positions at the Chinese Embassy in Prague.”
He said they tailed her and sought information about Hsiao’s program and meetings with Czech officials.
China claims Taiwan as its territory and has ramped up the deployment of fighter jets and warships around the self-ruled island in recent years.
In response to the Czech claims, Beijing insisted on Monday that “Taiwan is a part of China and has no so-called vice president.”
“No matter how the DPP authorities try to change things up and seek independence from the outside, and drive a wedge in China’s diplomatic relationships, they will not be able to cover up their sinister plot and their attempt will not succeed,” Mao said, referring to Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party.


’We have nothing’: Afghans driven out of Iran return to uncertain future

Updated 27 min 10 sec ago
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’We have nothing’: Afghans driven out of Iran return to uncertain future

  • Since January, more than 690,000 Afghans have left Iran
  • Tehran ordered Afghans without the right to remain to leave by July 6
ISLAM QALA: Hajjar Shademani’s family waited for hours in the heat and dust after crossing the border into Afghanistan, their neat pile of suitcases all that remained of a lifetime in Iran after being deported to their homeland.
The 19-year-old and her three siblings are among tens of thousands of Afghans who have crossed the Islam Qala border point in recent days, the majority forced to leave, according to the United Nations and Taliban authorities.
Despite being born in Iran after her parents fled war 40 years ago, Shademani said the country “never accepted us.” When police came to her family’s home in Shiraz city and ordered them to leave, they had no choice.
But Afghanistan is also alien to her.
“We don’t have anything here,” she told AFP in English.
Between Iranian universities that would not accept her and the Taliban government, which has banned education for women, Shademani’s studies are indefinitely on hold.
“I really love studying... I wanted to continue but in Afghanistan, I think I cannot.”
At Herat province’s Islam Qala crossing, the checkpoint is usually busy handling the cycle of smuggling to deportation as young men seek work in Iran.
But since Tehran ordered Afghans without the right to remain to leave by July 6, the number of returnees — especially families — has surged. More than 230,000 departed in June alone, the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.
Since January, more than 690,000 Afghans have left Iran, “70 percent of whom were forcibly sent back,” IOM spokesperson Avand Azeez Agha told AFP.
Of the more than a dozen returnees AFP spoke to on Saturday, none said they had fled the recent Iran-Israel conflict, though it may have ramped up pressure. Arrests, however, had helped spur their departures.


Yadullah Alizada had only the clothes on his back and a cracked phone to call his family when he stepped off one of the many buses unloading people at the IOM-run reception center.
The 37-year-old said he was arrested while working as a day laborer and held at a detention camp before being deported to Afghanistan.
Forced to leave without his family or belongings, he slept on a bit of cardboard at the border, determined to stay until his family could join him.
“My three kids are back there, they’re all sick right now, and they don’t know how to get here.”
He hopes to find work in his home province of Daikundi, but in a country wracked by entrenched poverty and unemployment, he faces an uphill climb.
The UN mission for Afghanistan, UNAMA, has warned that the influx of deportees — many arriving with “no assets, limited access to services, and no job prospects” — risks further destabilising the crisis-wracked country.
Long lines snaked into tents encircling the reception center where returnees accessed UN, NGO and government services.
Gusty wind whipped women’s Iranian-style hijabs and young men’s trendy outfits, clothing that stood out against the shalwar kameez that has become ubiquitous in Afghanistan since the Taliban swept to power in 2021, imposing their strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi inspected the site on Saturday, striding through the crowd surrounded by a heavily armed entourage and pledging to ensure “that no Afghan citizen is denied their rights in Iran” and that seized or abandoned assets would be returned.
Taliban authorities have consistently called for “dignified” treatment of the migrants and refugees hosted in Iran and Pakistan, the latter having also ousted hundreds of thousands of Afghans since the latest decades-long war ended.


Over one million Afghans have already returned to Afghanistan this year from both neighboring countries. The numbers are only expected to rise, even as foreign aid is slashed and the Taliban government struggles for cash and international recognition.
The IOM says it can only serve a fraction of the returnees, with four million Afghans potentially impacted by Iran’s deadline.
Some of the most vulnerable pass through the agency’s transit center in Herat city, where they can get a hot meal, a night’s rest and assistance on their way.
But at the clean and shaded compound, Bahara Rashidi was still worried about what would become of her and her eight sisters back in Afghanistan. They had smuggled themselves into Iran to make a living after their father died.
“There is no man in our family who can work here, and we don’t have a home or money,” the 19-year-old told AFP.
“We have nothing.”

Russian forces advance and take first village in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, state media say

Updated 33 min 15 sec ago
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Russian forces advance and take first village in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, state media say

MOSCOW: Russian forces have taken control of the first village in the east-central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk, Russian state media and war bloggers said on Monday, after Russia took 950 square km of territory in two months.
There was no immediate confirmation from Ukrainian sources or from the Russian Defense Ministry.
As Moscow and Kyiv talk of possible peace, the war has intensified with Russian forces carving out a 200 square kilometer (77.22 square miles) chunk of Ukraine’s Sumy region and entering the Dnipropetrovsk region last month.
The authoritative Ukrainian Deep State map shows that Russia now controls 113,588 square km of Ukrainian territory, up 943 square km over the two months to June 28.
Russia’s state RIA news agency quoted a pro-Russian official, Vladimir Rogov, as saying that Russian forces had taken control of the village of Dachnoye just inside the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Russia has said it is willing to make peace but that Ukraine must withdraw from the entirety of four regions which Russia mostly controls and which President Vladimir Putin says are now legally part of Russia.
Ukraine and its European backers say those terms are tantamount to capitulation and that Russia is not interested in peace and that they will never accept Russian control of a fifth of Ukraine.
The areas under Russian control include Crimea, more than 99 percent of the Luhansk region, over 70 percent of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, all in the east or southeast, and fragments of the Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions.


Dalai Lama suggests institution to continue at 90th birthday launch

Updated 30 June 2025
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Dalai Lama suggests institution to continue at 90th birthday launch

  • The Dalai Lama has said the institution will continue only if there is popular demand

MCLEOD GANJ: Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, gave on Monday the strongest indication yet that the 600-year-old institution would continue after his death, at prayer celebrations for his 90th birthday.
The Dalai Lama joined thousands of Buddhist followers on Monday in the prayer celebrations, a landmark event resonating far beyond the Indian Himalayan town where he has lived for decades.
“As far as the institution of the Dalai Lama, there will be some kind of a framework within which we can talk about its continuation,” he said, speaking in Tibetan.
The leader, who turns 90 on July 6, is according to Tibetans the 14th reincarnation of the Dalai Lama.
He and thousands of other Tibetans have lived in exile in India since Chinese troops crushed an uprising in the Tibetan capital Lhasa in 1959.
Draped in traditional maroon and yellow robes, the Dalai Lama sat and listened to speeches and chants of monks, nuns, pilgrims, as well as well-wishers from across the world on Monday.
“Though I am 90 years old, physically I am very healthy,” he said, before tasting a slice of Tibetan-style birthday cake, an elaborately decorated tower made from roasted barley and butter cut in front of him.
“In the time I have left, I will continue to dedicate myself to the well-being of others as much as possible,” he said.


The Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday is more than a personal milestone.
The charismatic Nobel Peace Prize-winning Buddhist Tenzin Gyatso is also expected to reveal if there will be another Dalai Lama after him.
The Dalai Lama has said the institution will continue only if there is popular demand — and is widely expected to reveal that decision on Wednesday.
The occasion carries profound weight not only for Tibetans, but also for global supporters who see the Dalai Lama as a symbol of non-violence, compassion, and the enduring struggle for Tibetan cultural identity under Chinese rule.
“We offer our fervent devotions that Tenzin Gyatso, protector of the Land of Snows, lives for one hundred eons,” a chorus of red-robed monks sang.
“May all your noble aspirations be fulfilled,” they added, in front of a crowd that included religious leaders of many faiths.
His advancing age has also sparked concern over the future of Tibetan leadership and the delicate question of his succession.
While China condemns him as a rebel and separatist, the internationally recognized Dalai Lama describes himself as a “simple Buddhist monk.”
Many exiled Tibetans fear China will name a successor to bolster control over a territory it poured troops into in 1950.
The Dalai Lama has been lauded by his followers for his tireless campaign for greater autonomy for Tibet, a vast high-altitude plateau in China about the size of South Africa.
The Dalai Lama handed over political authority in 2011 to an exiled government chosen democratically by 130,000 Tibetans globally.
At the same time, he warned that the future of his spiritual post faced an “obvious risk of vested political interests misusing the reincarnation system.”