The vaccines will treat and cure non-infectious diseases “in the not too distant future”like cancer or Alzheimer’s. In addition, they will be therapeutic vaccines, which cure, not just prevent diseases, according to Fernando Fariñas, director of the Institute of Clinical Immunology and Infectious Diseases from Malaga.
Fariñas spoke this Friday at the round table New vaccines, platforms and administration systems, within the framework of the Twelfth Congress of the Spanish Association of Vaccinologywhich is celebrated in Malagathe organization reported in a statement.
He has indicated that the most advanced research They focus on three fields of non-infectious pathologies: vaccines for autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, for certain types of cancer, such as pancreatic or lung cancer, or for neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s or dementia with Lewy bodies.
to these areas the steps that trials with therapeutic vaccines add up are taking place in the fight against tumors of the central nervous system, high blood pressure, smoking or reducing the negative effects caused by some treatments, such as fentanyl.
More than 300 trials underway
At the moment, There are more than three hundred clinical trials underway around the world that focus on this therapeutic approach to vaccines. Some of them, such as the vaccine for lung cancer and melanoma, are developed in Spain.
Precisely, certain tests to achieve a cure against lung cancer are in advanced clinical phasethat is, they have already passed the safety stage and their effectiveness is being assessed. If this were positive, it would move on to phase 3, the clinic, but, according to Fariñas, “it is very likely that none of these vaccines will have all clinical trials completed before 2030.”
“The future is going to be better, for sure, we will have vaccines to cure diseases such as some types of cancer or dementia, but we must be cautious, many of the investigations that are being carried out will not work out, they will fall by the wayside,” he stated.
He also explained that research in this field is being developed thanks, above all, to the important advance that the technology called messenger RNA has brought about. This same technology has been used in some vaccines against covid-19which has generated more interest and funding.
This technique, as specified, consists of using genetic material that, once injected, sends information to the cells so that they make a protein, which awakens the immune response against the tumor, which will attack them without damaging healthy cells.
Among its advantages it also stands out that It would be a less aggressive treatment than other more traditional approachessuch as chemotherapies or radiotherapies, and the effectiveness of these vaccines will increase if they can be applied in the early stages of the disease. This technologybased on the use of the tumor’s own proteins, opens the door to the creation of personalized vaccines.
“Tumors express proteins and these can be specific to a certain type of cancer and appear, therefore, in all people who suffer from it, but they do There are patients in whom another different protein is expressed, which does not appear in the otherswe will be able to create vaccines with their proteins to combat their tumor,” Fariñas explained.
The trials that are being carried out They also demonstrate that the effectiveness of this vaccination system It is highly increased if it is used in combination with immunotherapy, which is currently being administered to thousands of patients with different types of cancer.
“For example, Immunotherapy alone against melanoma shows significant efficacybut combined with a vaccine of messenger RNA, this protection increases significantly and, therefore, the philosophy is to use both systems combined,” Fariñas stated.
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