A cure for cancer? Making sense of RNA vaccines - 360
Samrat Choudhury
Published on May 22, 2024
New vaccines for cancer and flu are among a host of promising RNA therapeutics currently in human clinical trials.
Potential cures for certain types of cancer. A universal vaccine against the myriad strains of influenza. New drugs to treat cystic fibrosis.
Such is the promise of RNA-based therapeutics.
Since a key technical challenge was overcome with the advent of lipid nanoparticles to more precisely deliver the treatments, and research interest revived during the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to the success of mRNA COVID vaccines, the field is now rapidly growing.
In terms of messenger RNA treatments alone, as of late 2023 there were more than 80 mRNA therapeutics in human trials, with at least five new clinically approved mRNA drugs coming to market and many more in the registration process.
360info asked scientists in Australia, India and Malaysia to help us, and readers everywhere, make sense of this new technology and what we should expect from it.
Editors Note: In the story “RNA therapeutics” sent at: 20/05/2024 07:51.
This is a corrected repeat.