“If I Can See It, I Can Kill It”

Abstract

If one could use the word “elegant” to describe anticancer therapy, that moniker would apply to messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. The elegance of mRNA vaccines derives from their apparent ability to overcome one of the major limitations of conventional cancer vaccines: HLA restriction. Most cancer vaccines are composed of glycoproteins that only fit inside the antigen-presenting pockets in human leucocyte antigen (HLA) molecules – our cellular “home address” – a certain percentage of the time. Consequently, anyone treated with a protein-based vaccine is fortunate to achieve an immune response.