Recent advancements in lipid-mRNA nanoparticles as a treatment option for cancer immunotherapy

Abstract

Background: Cancer remains a serious health concern worldwide, and different approaches are being developed for its treatment. The strategy to use the immune system as an approach for treating cancer has recently gained momentum. Messenger RNA (mRNA) has been assessed as an up-and-coming resource for the evolution of advanced cancer immunotherapies over the past decades. However, degradation in extracellular compartments and during endosomal escape remain obstacles for efficient mRNA delivery and limit the therapeutic applications of this approach.

Area covered: Lipid-based nanocarriers are gaining significant attention as non-viral mRNA vectors. Various lipid-based nanocarrier types have been developed to enhance the stability of mRNA molecules, facilitate their transfection, and ensure delivery to an intracellular compartment suitable for further processing. This review discusses the development of novel mRNA delivery systems using lipids for effective cancer immunotherapy.

Expert opinion: mRNAs are superior to other biomolecules for developing therapeutic drugs and vaccines with multiple medical applications that are currently being explored by researchers in various biomedical fields. Lipid-based mRNA nanoparticles can improve the potency of the mRNA by enhancing its stability, enabling its cellular uptake, and facilitating its endosomal escape. Targetability of these therapeutics can be increased by conjugating their surface with the desired ligands or targeting agents. Lipid-mRNA nanoparticles are increasingly being incorporated in cancer immunotherapy applications, including vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell treatment, and several such nanoparticles are being assessed in clinical trials. Further research that assesses key variables for transfection efficiency of lipid-mRNA nanoparticles will expedite the development of improved therapeutics.

Keywords: Cancer immunotherapy; Lipid nanoparticle; Lipids; mRNA.