There is research that has been done that shows mRNA and DNA vaccines may soon be able to treat some cancers as well as autoimmune disorders and genetic diseases. These types of vaccines have been worked on for about 30 years. The vaccines didn’t work well at first because they were unstable and caused too strong of responses. However, researchers figured out how to stabilize the issues and created new technologies that allow the mRNA to go into cells and modify their code sequences.
Key Takeaways:
- Gene-based vaccines have been in development for about 30 years and are based on the idea that DNA can make RNA.
- Nucleic acid vaccines are able to induce a T cell response which other vaccines struggle with.
- T cell responses can help show us what cells are infected with chronic disease or cancerous cells.
“Once those problems were solved, the technology was really poised to become a revolutionary tool for medicine. This was just when COVID-19 hit.”
