January 13, 2023
|
Posted by admin
As of January 10, 2022, over 13 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered — including hundreds of millions of mRNA vaccines by companies like Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. Following the surge in mRNA vaccine research for COVID-19, researchers are now seeking to apply their experience to cancer vaccines. Recently, BioNTech announced a strategic partnership with the government of the United Kingdom to provide up to 10,000 patients with personalized mRNA cancer immunotherapies by 2030.
“Our goal is to accelerate the development of immunotherapies and vaccines using technologies we have been researching for over 20 years,” says Prof. Ugur Sahin, CEO and cofounder of BioNTech, in a press release.
“The collaboration will cover various cancer types and infectious diseases affecting collectively hundreds of millions of people worldwide. If successful, this collaboration has the potential to improve outcomes for patients and provide early access to our suite of cancer immunotherapies as well as to innovative vaccines against infectious diseases – in the U.K. and worldwide,” he adds.
You must be logged in to view this content.
Categories: Uncategorized
| 
Tags: BionTech, cancer immunotherapies, cancer vaccine, COVID-19, Moderna, mRNA vaccines, Pfizer-BioNTech
October 19, 2022
|
Posted by admin
Two major pharmaceutical companies are testing a personalized vaccine that might prevent the recurrence of a specific type of skin cancer. Moderna, one of the companies behind the COVID-19 vaccine, and Merck, an enterprise focused largely on oncology and preventative medicines, are teaming up to see if they can reduce the public’s risk of re-developing the deadliest form of skin cancer: melanoma.
The vaccine essentially combines two medical technologies: the mRNA vaccine and Merck’s Keytruda. As with the COVID-19 vaccine, mRNA shots don’t require an actual virus. Instead, they use a disease’s genetic code to “teach” the immune system to recognize and fight that particular illness. This makes it relatively easy and inexpensive for scientists to develop mRNA vaccines and edit them if a new form of the disease emerges. Keytruda, meanwhile, is a prescription medication that helps prevent melanoma from coming back after known cancer cells have been surgically removed.
Moderna and Merck are testing the feasibility of not only creating a two-in-one drug with both technologies but also customizing individual vaccines to suit their respective patients. Each vaccine is engineered to activate the patient’s immune system, which in turn deploys T cells (a type of white blood cell known to fight cancer) that go after the specific mutations of a patient’s tumor. Keytruda assists this effort by barring certain cell proteins from getting in the way of T cells’ intervention.
The experimental drug is currently in its second clinical trial out of three. The trial involves 157 participants with high-risk melanoma who just successfully underwent surgical removal. Some of the participants were given the personalized vaccine, while others were given Keytruda alone. Moderna and Merck will observe whether the participants’ melanoma returns over the span of approximately one year, with primary data expected at the end of this year.
If a vaccine preventing the recurrence of melanoma does in fact become commercially available, it could prevent more than 7,000 deaths per year in the US alone.
Source: https://www.extremetech.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: cancer cells, genetic code, immune system, Keytruda, melanoma, Merck, Moderna, mRNA vaccine, oncology, personalized vaccine, proteins, skin cancer, T-cells, tumor, virus
March 1, 2022
|
Posted by admin
Building on the momentum of its extraordinarily successful mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, biotechnology company Moderna has announced three new mRNA development targets. The company is now setting its vaccine sights on the herpes simplex virus, the varicella-zoster virus, and a novel cancer vaccine. mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were demonstrating extraordinary safety and efficacy. Moderna has just announced a trio of new developmental targets. These three new mRNA vaccine targets sit alongside the company’s previously announced focuses on HIV, influenza, cytomegalovirus (CMV), and the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV).
The biggest newly announced target is a mRNA vaccine against the herpes simplex virus (HSV). HSV-2 is the world’s most common sexually transmitted disease, with around 10 percent of people thought to be infected. Some researchers have also hypothesized the herpes virus may play a role in the onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
The second mRNA target announced by Moderna is aimed at the varicella-zoster virus (VSV). This is the virus that causes chicken pox and it is also a latent virus that can remain dormant for years after an initial infection. When VSV reactivates it causes a disease known as shingles. Moderna’s targeting of shingles follows an announcement last month from Pfizer indicating it too will be looking at developing an mRNA vaccine for this common disease.
The final newly announced mRNA target is for a vaccine aimed at two antigens expressed by some cancer cells. The vaccine focuses on two antigens: Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1). Both molecules are known to play a role in the growth of tumor cells. The goal of an mRNA vaccine for cancer would be to train the body’s immune cells to detect tumor cells expressing these specific antigens. The mRNA vaccine will initially be tested on advanced or metastatic skin cancer and a type of lung cancer called non-small cell lung carcinoma.
“We are committed to addressing latent viruses with the goal of preventing the lifelong medical conditions that they cause with our mRNA vaccine programs,” said Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna. “With our HSV and VZV vaccine candidates, we also hope to improve the quality of life for those with symptomatic disease. With our new checkpoint cancer vaccine, we look forward to exploring if we can induce T cells specific to PD-L1 and IDO1 through vaccination. Our research teams are working on additional mRNA candidates, which we look forward to sharing in the future.”
Source: https://www.accesswire.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: cancer, Herpes, herpes simplex virus, HSV, IDO, immune cells, Moderna, mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, non-small cell lung carcinoma, PD-L1, Pfizer, shingles, varicella, VSV
December 21, 2021
|
Posted by admin
An experimental HIV vaccine that uses the same technology as the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer is showing promising results in both monkeys and mice. A press release from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) explained that monkeys who received a multiple doses of the experimental vaccine had their chances of contracting an HIV-like virus lowered by 79%.
Scientists have spent decades struggling to create an HIV vaccine due to the speed at which the virus mutates and its remarkable ability to evade the immune system. Dr. Anthony Fauci, president of NIAID, leader of the United States’ battle against COVID-19, and a co-author of this HIV vaccine study published in Nature Medicine, expressed optimism about the progress made by the mRNA technology.
“Despite nearly four decades of effort by the global research community, an effective vaccine to prevent HIV remains an elusive goal,” Fauci said. “This experimental mRNA vaccine combines several features that may overcome shortcomings of other experimental HIV vaccines and thus represents a promising approach.”
The trial involved a series of booster shots in macaques over the course of an entire year. The authors explained that not only did the trial yield a positive immune response, but also that “the vaccine was well tolerated with only mild adverse events after each inoculation,” with the most common side effect being loss of appetite.
Now the researchers are working on refining the process so less rounds of shots are needed, as they noted in Nature Medicine that “a vaccination regimen encompassing seven or more sequential immunizations would be difficult to implement in humans.” The study’s leader Dr. Paolo Lusso, said that if the team is successful at reducing the number of boosters in a safe and effective way, they will then move on to a phase 1 trial of the vaccine in adult humans.
Source: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: booster shots, COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, HIV, immune response, immune system, Moderna, mRNA technology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIAID, Pfizer, phase 1 trial, vaccine
November 30, 2021
|
Posted by admin
Moderna’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Burton said Sunday the vaccine maker could roll out a reformulated vaccine against the omicron coronavirus variant early next year. It’s not clear whether new formulations will be needed, or if current Covid vaccinations will provide protection against the new variant that has begun to spread around the globe.
“We should know about the ability of the current vaccine to provide protection in the next couple of weeks, but the remarkable thing about the MRNA vaccines, Moderna platform is that we can move very fast,” Burton said on BBC’s “Andrew Marr Show.”
The emergence of a new COVID-19 variant sparked a big rally in shares of Moderna on Monday as the company announced plans to combat the virus with more vaccines. Moderna jumped as much as 10% on Monday, extending its two-day rally to more than 30% amid budding fears of the Omicron variant.
https://www.cnbc.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: Covid vaccinations, Moderna, omicron coronavirus variant, vaccine
September 9, 2021
|
Posted by admin
Until recently, most of the world had never heard of mRNA vaccines. To combat COVID-19, the United States Food and Drug Administration issued emergency use authorization in December 2020 for mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. While the pandemic brought mRNA vaccines into the limelight, melanoma patient Bobby Fentress had experience with mRNA technology nearly a year prior. mRNA vaccines hold promise for fighting infectious diseases beyond the SARS-CoV-2 virus, including fighting cancer. At age 68, Bobby was an early participant in a clinical trial intended to see whether a vaccine made with mRNA could destroy his cancer cells and prevent recurrence.
Bobby’s story began in 2019. He found an odd bump on his middle finger and assumed it was a wart. After his wife urged him to be seen by a dermatologist, he received a call that he would need a biopsy – which ultimately revealed that he had stage 2c melanoma. Several months later, Bobby had most of his middle finger amputated and was told that there was a 50% possibility that the cancer would reoccur. That’s when Bobby decided to enroll in a clinical trial with HCA Healthcare’s Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, Tennessee. He received his first shots of a personalized mRNA vaccine created by Moderna in April 2020. These vaccines are developed from a patient’s specific tumor DNA. The DNA of the tumor is analyzed to determine the differences between the tumor and a patient’s own cells and which proteins might elicit the best immune response. The mRNA vaccine is then developed to instruct the body to make these proteins and stimulate an immune response. Patients such as Bobby then receive a series of these vaccine treatments.
“Bobby finished his year of treatment earlier this spring. While it is too early to know if the therapy will work, Bobby’s oncologist, Dr. Meredith McKean, is optimistic. Immunotherapy has been a game changer for melanoma. With mRNA, the hope is that personalized therapy would offer additional treatment benefit above our standard treatments that we offer for patients broadly. Even for patients like Bobby that had surgery, ten years ago we wouldn’t be able to give him anything but highly toxic therapy options. It’s refreshing to offer a clinical trial like this. While the trial is not yet complete, we have enough data to be hopeful. It’s a very encouraging area that I’m excited about as a provider,” says Dr McKean, associate director of the melanoma and skin cancer research program at Sarah Cannon Research Institute.
https://hcahealthcaretoday.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: “memory” B cells, antibodies, B-cell, cancer, cells, COVID-19, immune response, melanoma, Moderna, mRNA vaccines, Pfizer-BioNTech, proteins, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, tumor DNA, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
August 19, 2021
|
Posted by admin
Today, the biotech company Moderna will start human trials for its HIV vaccine. Its HIV vaccine will be the first of its kind to use messenger RNA (mRNA), an approach that Moderna used in its effective COVID-19 vaccine.
The clinical trials will end sometime around spring 2023, according to the National Institutes of Health’s trial registry. They will involve 56 HIV-negative participants aged 18 to 56. The participants will be given one or two forms of mRNA that cause the body to form defenses against HIV infection.
In the past, HIV vaccines used inactivated forms of the virus. However, previous trials showed that these forms didn’t produce any immune responses. In fact, researchers canceled one trial in Thailand during the 2000s after inactivated forms of the virus were found to actually increase people’s risk of catching HIV rather than preventing infections.
Instead, the Moderna trials will contain one of two different types of mRNA: mRNA-1644 and mRNA-1644v2. These get the body’s cells to develop a “protein spike” on their surfaces. These spikes are similar to those embedded by HIV on a cell’s surface when it begins to infect cells to reproduce. When the body recognizes the presence of the mRNA spike, it begins producing antibodies to protect against infection. The mRNA may also allow scientists to make tweaks to the vaccine more easily.
“The mRNA platform makes it easy to develop vaccines against variants because it just requires an update to the coding sequences in the mRNA that code for the variant,” Rajesh Gandhi, MD, an infectious diseases physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and chair of the HIV Medicine Association, told the medical site Verywell. This is especially helpful for HIV since the virus is known for having mutated into at least 16 known variants.
Source: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: cells, COVID-19 vaccine, HIV Medicine Association, HIV vaccine, messenger RNA, Moderna, mRNA, mRNA-1644, mRNA-1644v2, National Institutes of Health, protein spike, t Massachusetts General Hospital, virus
June 24, 2021
|
Posted by admin
The astonishing success of COVID-19 vaccines may signal a breakthrough in disease prevention technology. Moderna is developing influenza and HIV vaccines using mRNA technology, the backbone of its effective COVID-19 vaccine. The biotech company is expected to launch phase 1 trials for its mRNA flu and HIV vaccines this year. If successful, mRNA may offer a silver lining to the decades-long fight against HIV, influenza, and other autoimmune diseases. Traditional vaccines often introduce a weakened or inactive virus to one’s body. In contrast, mRNA technology uses genetic blueprints, which build proteins to train the immune system to fight off the virus. Since mRNA teaches the body to recognize a virus, it can be effective against multiple strains or variants as opposed to just one.
“The mRNA platform makes it easy to develop vaccines against variants because it just requires an update to the coding sequences in the mRNA that code for the variant,” said Rajesh Gandhi, MD, an infectious diseases physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and chair of HIV Medicine association.
Future mRNA vaccines have the potential to ward off multiple diseases with one shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Current mRNA vaccines, as demonstrated in their use against COVID-19, already appear to be less susceptible to new variants. “Based on its success in protecting against COVID-19, I am hopeful that mRNA technology will revolutionize our ability to develop vaccines against other pathogens, like HIV and influenza,” Gandhi says.
Moderna’s flu and HIV vaccines are still in early development stages, having yet to undergo their clinical trials. Still, if they prove successful, the mRNA-based treatment could dramatically change health care — both in expediting the route to immunity and by providing a solution to illnesses that have been around for decades. Scientists currently make annual alterations to the typical flu shot to keep up with the viruses in circulation. But a successful mRNA vaccine could provide a far more effective alternative.
An approved mRNA flu vaccine could be administered every other year rather than annually, explained virologist Andrew Pekosz, PhD. This is because mRNA accounts for variants and produces a stronger and longer-lasting immune response than that of the current flu vaccine, he says. The influenza vaccine is similar to the COVID-19 vaccine because the viruses have similar characteristics and necessary treatments, according to Pekosz.
However, a potential concern lies in the level of public immunity prior to receiving a vaccine. Since the flu has been around since the early 1900s, an mRNA vaccine could potentially boost older or less effective antibody responses rather than targeting current strains, Pekosz adds. “There’s no way to answer that question except to do some clinical trials, and see what the results tell us”.
Source: https://www.verywellhealth.com/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Covid-19 vaccines, genetics, HIV, immune system, immunity, influenza, Massachusetts General Hospital, Moderna, mRNA, proteins, virus
March 17, 2021
|
Posted by admin
Moderna Inc said it had dosed the first participant in an early-stage study of a new COVID-19 vaccine candidate that could potentially be stored and shipped in refrigerators instead of freezers. The company said its new candidate could make it easier for distribution, especially in developing countries where supply chain issues could hamper vaccination drives.
The early-stage study will assess the safety and immunogenicity of the next-generation vaccine, designated as mRNA-1283, at three dose levels, and will be given to healthy adults either as a single dose or in two doses 28 days apart, the company said. Moderna also plans to evaluate the new vaccine, mRNA-1283, as a potential booster shot in future studies.
Last week, Moderna began dosing the first participants in a study testing COVID-19 booster vaccine candidates targeting the variant, known as B.1.351, that first emerged in South Africa.
The booster vaccine candidates, designated mRNA-1273.351, will be tested in a trial of both a variant-specific shot and a multivalent shot, according to the company’s announcement.
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: B.1.351, booster vaccine, COVID-19, Moderna, mRNA-1273.351, mRNA-128, mRNA-1283, vaccine, variant
February 19, 2021
|
Posted by admin
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has received an application for conditional marketing authorisation (CMA) for a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Janssen-Cilag International N.V. Janssen is a subsidiary of the giant pharma-company Johnson & Johnson.
EMA’s human medicines committee (CHMP) will assess the vaccine, known as COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen, under an accelerated timetable. The Committee could issue an opinion by the middle of March 2021, provided the company’s data on the vaccine’s efficacy, safety and quality are sufficiently comprehensive and robust.
Such a short time for evaluation is only possible because EMA has already reviewed some data during a rolling review. During this phase, EMA assessed quality data and data from laboratory studies which looked at how well the vaccine triggers the production of antibodies and immune cells that target SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). The Agency also looked at clinical safety data on the viral vector used in the vaccine.
EMA is now assessing additional data on the efficacy and safety of the vaccine as well as its quality. If EMA concludes that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh its risks, it will recommend granting a CMA. The European Commission will then issue a decision on whether to grant a CMA valid in all EU and EEA Member States within days.
This is the fourth CMA application for a COVID-19 vaccine since the start of the current pandemic. It comes after EMA’s evaluation of vaccines from BioNTech/Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca. These vaccines are now authorised in the EU and are among the tools Member States are using to combat COVID-19.
Source: https://www.ema.europa.eu/
Categories: Uncategorized
| Tags: antibodies, AstraZeneca, BioNTech/Pfizer, CHMP, CMA, conditional marketing authorisation, COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccine, COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen, EMA, European Medicines Agengy, immune cells, Janssen-Cilag International N.V, Johnson & Johnso, Moderna, SARS-CoV-2
Recent Comments