New Vaccine Helps Immune System Fight Deadly Brain Tumors

GAINESVILLE, Fla – Glioblastoma is the most common type of brain cancer, affecting about 3 in every 100,000 people globally each year.

Recent research shows that glioblastoma incidence is risingTrusted Source due to an aging population and environmental factors such as air pollutionTrusted Source.

Glioblastoma is a challenging cancer to treat and has an average five-year survival rate of 6.9%.

Now, researchers from the University of Florida have developed a new mRNA cancer vaccine to retrain the body’s immune system to attack and potentially treat glioblastoma. The results of this study were recently published in the journal Cell.

“Glioblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor, and despite the boon in medical innovations, outcomes have not precipitously changed in decades,” Elias Sayour, MD, PhD, the Stop Children’s Cancer/Bonnie R. Freeman Professor for Pediatric Oncology Research in the Departments of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at the University of Florida and lead author of this study told Medical News Today.

“Our brain tumor program has developed promising effects with other forms of immunotherapy against brain cancer and wanted to test a novel mRNA vaccine design to enhance responses for these difficult-to-treat diseases,” Sayour added.

Ever since the mRNA vaccines were developed to fight the coronavirus, scientists have been studying their use for the treatment of other conditions, including cancer.

In this study, researchers used study participants’ own tumor cells to create a personalized vaccine for their particular cancer.

“mRNA is the information from our genetic code that is turned into protein: the hardware that makes each of us — and each cancer — unique,” Sayour explained.

“By targeting the unique mRNA repertoire of a patient’s cancer, we can make exquisitely personalized vaccines unique to individual tumors in a manner that is feasible and commercializable to all.”

mRNA vaccine triggers effective immune response

The study evaluated the impact of the new mRNA vaccines by testing 10 pet dogs who had natural brain tumors and were enrolled in the study by their owners because they had no other treatment options.

Dogs treated with the mRNA cancer vaccine lived an average of 139 days, compared to the average 30- to 60-day survival rate for dogs with the condition.

After animal tests, the scientists expanded their research to a small FDA-approved clinical trial of four human study participants with glioblastoma.

After receiving the mRNA vaccine, researchers reported that in less than 48 hours, they were able to observe brain tumors moving from a “cold” silenced immune response to a “hot” active immune response.

“This is significant because it usually takes time — weeks to months with boosters — for vaccines to begin working,” Sayour said. “We expect this work to create a new paradigm that rapidly activates the immune system against cancer.”

“To win the war on cancer, the immune system needs a better head start. We hope this approach gives the immune system the head start it needs to win the race against rapidly evolving tumors. By getting rapid responses from a single vaccine, the immune system can be rapidly reprogrammed to fight cancer.”

— Elias Sayour, MD, PhD, lead study author