The professor, Sergio Abbrignaniprofessor of general pathology at the State University of Milan, was interviewed this morning by SkyTg24, asked about the news of the cancer vaccines which should arrive by 2030. Abrignani immediately made things clear by explaining: “In the case of cancer we are not talking about preventive vaccines but about vaccine-therapy”, specified the expert, making it clear how the serum will be used to cure but not to prevent cancer. “The anti-cancer vaccines are therefore therapies which, in this case, bring together two important things of recent years: mRna technology, to induce a strong immune response against tumor antigens, and immunotherapy, with drugs already used today that block the brake that tumors place on the immune response. These are vaccines that are given to people already suffering from cancer, in this case melanoma, in which tumor antigens had been identified “.
To make the announcement about the arrival of cancer vaccines was the pharmaceutical company Moderna, and the drug will also involve cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases. “We can talk about anti-cancer vaccines but certainly not about vaccines against cardio-vascular diseases – however Abrignani wanted to clarify to SkyTg24 who then explained how they work -. The aim in this case is not to induce an immune response, as vaccines do, but to make this mRna produce factors that induce the neoformation of occluded arteries in the heart or coronary artery”.
ABRIGNANI: “VACCINES? CANCER CELLS ARE DIFFERENT BUT…”
“These are therefore therapies, not vaccines – reiterated Abrignani – Anti-cancer vaccines have been worked on for decades, until now they had never worked because we were unaware, until ten years ago, that tumors put in place the shutdown of the immune response. With immunotherapy, which is regularly applied today for the treatment of certain types of tumours, an attempt is made to remove this brake with what we call inhibitory checkpoints. Moderna’s new vaccine combines vaccination with a therapy that removes this brake “.
Abrignani points out that thanks to new technologies today it has been possible to understand that “cancer cells are different from the cells around them: they have different antigens. Unfortunately, however, the most interesting tumor antigens are individual, i.e. those present in a subject A, due to mutations, are different from the tumor antigens of a subject B. mRna technology has made it possible to develop a personalized vaccine very quickly ” .
© breaking latest news