mRNA Vaccine Development for Breast Cancer

Introduction of mRNA Vaccine

Worldwide, the "pink killer" breast cancer (BC) accounts for approximately 30% of cancers in women and is associated with high mortality. Poor prognosis, chemotherapy resistance, radiotherapy insensitivity, and high incidence of adverse drug reactions remain pressing issues faced by BC patients. Messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines are a relatively new class of vaccines that have shown great promise in the immunotherapy of a variety of infectious diseases and cancers. Cancer vaccines can help prevent tumor growth, recurrence or metastasis, and recent advances in immuno-oncology research have opened up unprecedented avenues for the emergence of vaccine strategies. In recent years, as an important type of tumor vaccine, mRNA vaccines have developed rapidly in the field of BC treatment due to their advantages such as low toxicity, fast production speed, and rich types of encoded antigens.

Fig. 1. The manufacturing process of mRNA vaccines and the structure of mRNA and nucleotide modifications. (Li Y, et al., 2023)

Breast Cancer mRNA Vaccine Development Services

Highly effective mRNA vaccines require:

• Optimal mRNA stability and cellular uptake;
• Cytoplasmic delivery and mRNA expression in target cells such as antigen-presenting cells (APCs);
• Able to induce the protective adaptive immune response required by the body.

For the research and development of mRNA vaccines, Alfa Cytology provides complete solutions from target screening and discovery, production, purification, and efficient delivery of mRNA to the establishment of analytical methods to help customers improve the effectiveness and safety of mRNA vaccines.

• Target screening and discovery

To screen out suitable targets, we will conduct genomic analysis and proteomic analysis of tissue materials, and use deep gene sequencing technology and protein mass spectrometry analysis technology to predict, identify and select suitable targets.

• mRNA production

Target mRNA is synthesized on a small scale or in batches, and at the same time, the mRNA is modified to enhance the stability of the mRNA and its protein translation ability.
Purification of mRNA
Use magnetic bead-based purification technology to purify mRNA more efficiently and flexibly.

• Delivery of mRNA

Efficient mRNA delivery is the guarantee of vaccine efficacy. Delivery methods mainly include:

• Use carriers to inject mRNA into the body. Commonly used carriers include liposomes and DC cells;
• Directly injecting mRNA into the body, you can directly inject the mRNA into the body through in vivo transfection reagent;
• Directly penetrates the cell membrane through physical delivery methods and injects mRNA into cells.
• Establishment of analytical methods

Analyze the absorption and distribution of the vaccine after it enters the body, the immunogenicity and toxicity caused, and the functionality of the vaccine.

Alfa Cytology is a world-leading preclinical CRO company dedicated to assisting scientists around the world in BC research. We can provide you with BC mRNA vaccine development services and help in the treatment and diagnosis of BC. If you have any questions about BC research, please contact us and our experts will get back to you as soon as possible.