A lipid-based LMP2-mRNA vaccine to treat nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Abstract

This paper focuses on developing a lipid-based vaccine targeting nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), a highly severe and invasive epithelial malignancy associated with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). The researchers selected EBV latent membrane protein 2 (LMP2) as the preferred antigen for the vaccine. They synthesized full-length LMP2 using an in vitro transcription method and encapsulated it into cationic liposomes based on (2,3-dioleacyl propyl) trimethylammonium chloride (DOTAP) to create the mRNA vaccine (LPX-mLMP2). Cell assays in the study demonstrated that antigen-presenting cells efficiently took up LPX-mLMP2 and expressed LMP2. This led to the formation of peptide-major histocompatibility complexes (pMHC) for presentation. Moreover, the proliferation of antigen-specific T cells at the tumor site indicated the promising potential for mRNA vaccines in combating virus-induced cancers, such as NPC. The researchers concluded that the newly developed mRNA vaccine encoding the antigen offered advantages in the context of NPC and highlighted the attractiveness of mRNA vaccines as candidates for cancer immunotherapy.