EOvarian cancer, which has so far been difficult to treat in advanced stages, could be combated with mRNA therapy in the future. This is indicated by experiments carried out by researchers at Goethe University.
The p53 gene is defective in 96 percent of all patients with this tumor. It contains the code for a protein that detects damage to DNA and thus prevents cancer cells from multiplying. The researchers created a messenger RNA that contains the blueprint for a functional p53 protein.
The mRNA was packaged in fatty vesicles and these were introduced into human cancer cells in the laboratory. The cells then produced functional p53 proteins. In the next step, the scientists created individual ovarian tumors from cells from patients and treated them with the RNA, whereupon the tumors shrank.
According to the doctors, experiments with mice that had been implanted with human tumor cells were also successful. After injection of the mRNA, both the primary tumors and the metastases they caused almost completely disappeared. The scientists are now looking for partners for a clinical study. In view of the recent progress with mRNA methods, they are confident that they can make the method therapeutically usable.
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