A Covid19 Boost For Vaccine Technology?

The Covid19 pandemic has accelerated development and testing of vaccine technologies. Messenger-RNA (mRNA) vaccines are, of course, the most prominent 'new' element. Unlike 'traditional' vaccines, they involve the synthesis of nucleotide sequences. These mRNA sequences make 'foreign' proteins found in the infective agent, triggering immune responses. mRNA vaccines have the advantage of being quick and easy to 'scale-up'. Such vaccines are currently being trialled for many diseases including Cystic fibrosis, Cytomegalovirus, HIV, Influenza, Malaria, Shingles and Zika virus. A really interesting 'spin-off', however, has be the development of personalised cancer-treating vaccines (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/apr/07/covid-vaccines-golden-era-pandemic-techology-diseases).mRNA vaccines for dealing with tumours, involve first taking a biopsy. That tumour tisue is then sequenced to find the mutations absent in healthy cells. An algorithm is then used to pin-point mutations, that drive tumour growth but could also trigger an immune response. A corresponding mRNA molecule is then synthesised. This molecule is injected into the patient, where it's translated into a protein identical, to that characterising the tumour cells. This 'foreign' protein consequently triggers antibody production by immune cells. These antibodies also attack and destroy the tumour cells. Naturally, this process is laborious and has to be personalised for each individual patient. If this technology becomes widely available, it will be interesting to observe the responses of 'vaccine hesitant' folk. There's nothing like the threat of cancer, to make people prepared to try anything!