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Review
. 2023 Aug:199:114993.
doi: 10.1016/j.addr.2023.114993. Epub 2023 Jul 4.

mRNA: A promising platform for cancer immunotherapy

Byoungjae Kong  1 , Yelee Kim  2 , Eun Hye Kim  2 , Jung Soo Suk  3 , Yoosoo Yang  4
Affiliations
Review

mRNA: A promising platform for cancer immunotherapy

Byoungjae Kong et al. Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2023 Aug.

Abstract

Messenger RNA (mRNA) is now in the limelight as a powerful tool for treating various human diseases, especially malignant tumors, thanks to the remarkable clinical outcomes of mRNA vaccines using lipid nanoparticle technology during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent promising preclinical and clinical results that epitomize the advancement in mRNA and nanoformulation-based delivery technologies have highlighted the tremendous potential of mRNA in cancer immunotherapy. mRNAs can be harnessed for cancer immunotherapy in forms of various therapeutic modalities, including cancer vaccines, adoptive T-cell therapies, therapeutic antibodies, and immunomodulatory proteins. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the current state and prospects of mRNA-based therapeutics, including numerous delivery and therapeutic strategies.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Delivery systems for mRNA cancer therapeutics. (A) There are three main categories of NPs that are employed for mRNA delivery in cancer therapy: LNPs, polymeric NPs, and peptide-based NPs. LNPs typically contain cationic ionizable lipid, cholesterol, helper phospholipid, and PEG-lipid, and they are capable of co-delivering mRNAs with other forms of nucleic acids. Polymeric NPs and peptide-based NPs (CPPs), which consist of cationic amine groups or amino acids, respectively, can bind with anionic mRNA through electrostatic interaction to form nanosized particles. (B) Passive targeting and active targeting are two approaches for drug delivery to specific cells. Passive targeting uses natural transport systems, whereas active targeting involves the addition of targeting moieties to achieve on-target delivery. The composition, size, charge, and hydrophobicity of delivery vehicles can impact the binding of proteins to nanoparticles in the bloodstream, which affects their trafficking and uptake in passive targeting. Active targeting uses ligands such as antibodies and aptamers to selectively target specific cells, which can provide precise control of drug distribution in organs or cancer.
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