Nanoparticles and mice: this is the preferred avenue for researchers to find a new vaccine against cancer. After a battery of tests carried out on rodents, a team from the University of Massachusetts Amherst managed to develop a vaccine that could prevent aggressive cancers by up to 88%.
Thanks to immunostimulating nanoparticles, which train the immune system to recognize and destroy tumor cells, this treatment could help stop melanoma, pancreatic cancer and triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), summarizes an article on the New Atlas site.
Boost the immune system
“By engineering these nanoparticles to activate the immune system via multi-pathway activation combined with cancer-specific antigens, we can prevent tumor growth with remarkable survival rates”explains Prabhani Atukorale, co-author of the study, professor of biomedical engineering at the Riccio College of Engineering at UMass Amherst.
The vaccine thus makes it possible to improve, thanks to the subcutaneous injection of two immunostimulating molecules in a lipid nanoparticle, the responses of the innate immune system and the adaptive immune system, which takes longer to activate in the event of an attack on the body, but recognizes and memorizes specific threats, which allows it to deliver more precise and lasting immunity.
In mice, the injection of these double-adjuvanted nanoparticles produced an improved and effective immune response to different types of cancers. Combined with tumor peptides (the melanoma-specific antigens), 100% of vaccinated mice rejected the tumors, while all groups not treated or using a single adjuvant died within a month. Survivors did not develop new tumors in the months that followed despite further tumor challenge, suggesting that the vaccine provided them with long-term immune memory.
Between 69% and 88% of mice that received the vaccine remained tumor-free, and all survived a second tumor challenge. The authors of the study plan to use this vaccine both as a treatment and as a preventative means, which would make it possible to treat different types of cancers.
