Advances in mRNA therapeutics for cancer immunotherapy: From modification to delivery

Abstract

RNA vaccines have demonstrated their ability to solve the issues posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This success has led to the renaissance of research into mRNA and their nanoformulations as potential ther-apeutic modalities for various diseases. The potential of mRNA as a template for synthesizing proteins and protein fragments for cancer immunotherapy is now being explored. Despite the promise, the use of mRNA in cancer immunotherapy is limited by challenges, such as low stability against extracellular RNases, poor delivery efficiency to the target organs and cells, short circulatory half-life, variable expres-sion levels and duration. This review highlights recent advances in chemical modification and advanced delivery systems that are helping to address these challenges and unlock the biological and pharmacolog-ical potential of mRNA therapeutics in cancer immunotherapy. The review concludes by discussing future perspectives for mRNA-based cancer immunotherapy, which holds great promise as a next-generation therapeutic modality. & COPY; 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.