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Review
. 2022 Dec 14:13:1029069.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.1029069. eCollection 2022.

mRNA vaccines for cancer immunotherapy

Yashavantha L Vishweshwaraiah  1 , Nikolay V Dokholyan  1   2   3   4
Affiliations
Review

mRNA vaccines for cancer immunotherapy

Yashavantha L Vishweshwaraiah et al. Front Immunol. .

Abstract

Immunotherapy has emerged as a breakthrough strategy in cancer treatment. mRNA vaccines are an attractive and powerful immunotherapeutic platform against cancer because of their high potency, specificity, versatility, rapid and large-scale development capability, low-cost manufacturing potential, and safety. Recent technological advances in mRNA vaccine design and delivery have accelerated mRNA cancer vaccines' development and clinical application. In this review, we present various cancer vaccine platforms with a focus on nucleic acid vaccines. We discuss rational design and optimization strategies for mRNA cancer vaccine development. We highlight the platforms available for delivery of the mRNA vaccines with a focus on lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) based delivery systems. Finally, we discuss the limitations of mRNA cancer vaccines and future challenges.

Keywords: cancer vaccine; immunotherapy; lipid nanoparticles; mRNA; nucleic acid; optimization; tumor antigen.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Different types of cancer vaccine platforms.
Figure 2
Figure 2
mRNA structural elements. Structural elements of mRNA vaccine include coding sequence, flanked by 5′and 3′ untranslated regions (UTRs), 5′ cap structure and 3′poly (A) tail.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Schematic representation of lipid nanoparticle (LNP) based mRNA delivery. Components of the LNP are shown in the upper right box.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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