Scientists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst have announced a major breakthrough in the development of a new vaccine capable of fighting several types of cancer.
According to a medical report published in Cell Reports Medicine, the vaccine, which has been tested on mice, demonstrated an efficacy rate of 88 percent.
Just like vaccines designed to prevent or reduce illnesses caused by infectious viruses, this cancer vaccine works by training the immune system to recognise and attack tumours when they reappear.
Nanoparticles within the vaccine present a distinct component of cancer cells as an antigen – essentially a signal that alerts immune cells to a threat. Another material, described as a “super adjuvant,” further boosts the immune system’s response, encouraging it to launch a strong defensive attack.
In their initial experiments, scientists vaccinated a group of mice with nanoparticles containing melanoma peptides before exposing them to melanoma cells a few weeks later. Of the mice that received the nanoparticle vaccine, 80 percent survived and remained tumour-free throughout the 250-day duration of the study. In contrast, all unvaccinated mice or those given different formulations succumbed within seven weeks.
In a second test, the researchers used a more general antigen—a substance known as tumour lysate, made up of fragments of broken cancer cells. They hypothesised that the lysate might alert the immune system to a wider range of cancer types, potentially making it useful for prevention.
Mice were then given this version of the vaccine before being exposed to melanoma, pancreatic, or triple-negative breast cancer. Once again, the results were promising: 88 percent of those exposed to pancreatic cancer, 75 percent of those exposed to breast cancer, and 69 percent of those exposed to melanoma remained tumour-free.
The researchers even attempted to simulate the spread of cancer in the surviving mice, but all of them remained cancer-free.
“By engineering these nanoparticles to activate the immune system through multi-pathway stimulation combined with cancer-specific antigens, we can prevent tumour growth with remarkable survival rates,” explained Dr. Prabhani Atukorale, the lead researcher at the University.
While human trials have not yet begun, the researchers expressed optimism that this vaccine could one day be used both to treat patients after diagnosis and to prevent cancer from developing in high-risk individuals.
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