Vaccines to treat cancer possible by 2030: BioNTech founders
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MRNA Covid vaccine technology could be repurposed to aid in the destruction of cancer cells, as per Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Türeci.
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Profs Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci of BioNTech are interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg. (BBC)
Cancer vaccines could be available by the end of the decade, according to the team behind one of the pandemic's most successful Covid vaccines.
Ugur Sahin and Olem Türeci, the husband and wife team who are the co-founders of BioNTech, the German company that collaborated with Pfizer to develop the mRNA Covid vaccine, said they had made breakthroughs that fueled their optimism for cancer vaccines in the coming years.
Professor Türeci described how the mRNA technology at the heart of BioNTech's Covid vaccine could be repurposed to prime the immune system to attack cancer cells rather than invading coronaviruses, on BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
When asked when cancer vaccines based on mRNA might be ready for use in patients, Professor Sahin said "before 2030."
An mRNA Covid vaccine works by transporting the genetic instructions for the Covid virus's harmless spike proteins into the body. Cells take up the instructions and produce the spike protein. These proteins, known as antigens, are then used as "wanted posters," instructing the immune system's antibodies and other defenses on what to look for and attack.
Türeci, BioNTech's chief medical officer, said that the same approach can be used to prime the immune system to seek out and destroy cancer cells.
Rather than carrying a virus-identification code, the vaccine contains genetic instructions for cancer antigens, which are proteins found on the surfaces of tumor cells.
BioNTech was working on mRNA cancer vaccines before the pandemic, but in the face of the global emergency, the company shifted to producing Covid vaccines. Several cancer vaccines are currently in clinical trials at the company. Türeci stated that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which is similar to the Moderna Covid shot, "gives back to our cancer work."
The German company hopes to develop treatments for bowel cancer, melanoma, and other cancer types, but significant obstacles remain.
The cancer cells that comprise tumors can be imbued with a wide range of different proteins, making it extremely difficult to develop a vaccine that targets only cancer cells while leaving healthy tissue alone.
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