Cancer-treating vaccines could be ready by 2023, said BioNTech founders Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, who are known for partnering up with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to create the revolutionary mRNA COVID vaccine.
The duo expressed optimism for the development of cancer vaccinations in the future years after explaining that they have achieved some advancement, as told on The Guardian news website.
In an interview with the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Professor Türeci explained how the mRNA technology at the core of BioNTech’s Covid vaccine might be repurposed in a way that primes the immune system to fight cancer cells rather than invading coronaviruses.
Türeci was cautious about the project. Scientists are always reluctant to predict that they will have a cancer cure, she said.
“We’ve made a number of advances, and we’ll keep working on them,” declared the scientist.
The mechanism of an mRNA Covid vaccination operates by delivering the genetic instructions for the virus’s innocuous spike proteins into the body.
The cells that produce the spike protein take in the instructions and make the protein. The immune system’s antibodies and other defense mechanisms are then given instructions on what to look for in an attack by these proteins, or antigens, which act as “wanted posters.”
Türeci, the chief medical officer at BioNTech said that the immune system can be stimulated in the same way to look for and eliminate cancer cells.
The vaccine contains genetic instructions for cancer antigens, which are proteins that cover the surfaces of tumor cells, rather than information that detects viruses.
Currently, the company is testing a number of cancer vaccines in clinical trials.
Türeci declared that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which is comparable to the Moderna Covid shot, was developed and is successful because it gives back to the firm’s cancer effort.
Although there are still many obstacles to overcome, BioNTech intends to create treatments for melanoma, bowel cancer, and other disease types.
It is highly challenging to develop a vaccine that targets only the cancer cells and not healthy tissues since the cancer cells that make up tumors can be laced with a wide range of various proteins.
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