Emerging advances in delivery systems for mRNA cancer vaccines

Zhimei Jiang; Yanhua Xu; Guangsheng Du; Xun Sun

doi:10.1016/j.jconrel.2024.04.039

Emerging advances in delivery systems for mRNA cancer vaccines

J Control Release. 2024 May 1:370:287-301. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2024.04.039. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Zhimei Jiang¹, Yanhua Xu², Guangsheng Du², Xun Sun³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacy, Evidence-Based Pharmacy Center, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China; Key Laboratory of Birth Defects and Related Diseases of Women and Children, Ministry of Education, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
² Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry and Sichuan Province, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry and Sichuan Province, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China. Electronic address: sunxun@scu.edu.cn.

PMID: 38679162
DOI: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2024.04.039

Abstract

The success of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) in treating COVID-19 promotes further research of mRNA vaccines for cancer vaccination. Aiming at overcoming the constraints of currently available mRNA carriers, various alternative nano-vectors have been developed for delivering tumor antigen encoding mRNA and showed versatility to induce potent anti-tumor immunity. The rationally designed nano-vaccines increase the immune activation capacity of the mRNA vaccines by promoting crucial aspects including mRNA stability, cellular uptake, endosomal escape and targeting of immune cells or organs. Herein, we summarized the research progress of various mRNA based nano-vaccines that have been reported for cancer vaccination, including LNPs, lipid enveloped hybrid nanoparticles, polymeric nanoparticles etc. Several strategies that have been reported for further enhancing the immune stimulation efficacy of mRNA nano-vaccines, including developing nano-vaccines for co-delivering adjuvants, combination of immune checkpoint inhibitors, and optimizing the injection routes for boosting immune responses, have been reviewed. The progress of mRNA nano-vaccines in clinical trials and the prospect of the mRNA vaccines for cancer vaccination are also discussed.

Keywords: Adjuvants; Cancer vaccine; Lipid nanoparticles; Nano-vectors; mRNA.