A month after US Health Secretary Robert Kennedy pulled the plug on federal funding on mRNA vaccine research, news from another part of the world has sparked curiosity, and caution, about the possibilities of the technology that trains the immune system to fight diseases. Russian scientists have announced that Enteromix — a cancer vaccine that uses mRNA technology — has shown 100 per cent efficacy in clinical trials. The shots have shown significant results in shrinking tumours and slowing their growth, and have reportedly been found safe for repeated use. The vaccines, which can be tailored for personalised use, will be first deployed against colorectal cancer, one of the most common malignancies. Vaccines against aggressive skin and brain cancers are reportedly in the pipeline.
Despite recent advances, cancer remains one of the most feared diseases, and is often associated with uncertain, long, painful and expensive treatments. While the announcement by Russian scientists no doubt offers hope, there is enough reason to temper optimism with caution. The trials were reportedly conducted on fewer than 50 volunteers. Experts reason that tests need to be conducted on larger groups to ascertain the therapy’s efficacy across a broader and diverse section of people. This is especially important for vaccines that are tailored according to the idiosyncrasies of individual immune systems. It would also be premature to call the Russian discovery a breakthrough because the results of the trials on Enteromix are yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
That said, the Russian venture is not the only mRNA cancer vaccine that has shown encouraging results against the dreaded disease. Research on the technology in different parts of the world has shown promise in treating and preventing cancers that have often been difficult to address — they include breast cancer, cancers of the pancreas, kidney, and lungs, lymphoma, and difficult brain tumours. Such research dates back to more than a decade. The studies received a fillip after the battle against the coronavirus during the Covid pandemic threw the spotlight on mRNA, the messenger RNA or the molecule that carries the cell’s instruction on making proteins. Historically, it has taken decades to develop vaccines. But the research, manufacture, and deployment of Covid shots, less than two years into the pandemic, confirmed the hypothesis of a section of scientists that mRNA technology is well-suited for fast vaccine development on a global scale. With US regulators restricting mRNA vaccines, scientists fear that cancer research in the country could suffer. Scientists and anyone with an interest in cancer will be keenly watching how Enteromix fares in the coming months.
