The world's first vaccines against cancer, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases could arrive by 2030.
The announcement of an upcoming revolution in medicine that will allow millions of lives to be saved thanks to personalized vaccines has come from the American company Moderna, according to reports from the Guardian.
The experience gained with the anti-Covid vaccines, Modern points out, has allowed studies on anti-cancer vaccines to speed up research, so much so that the equivalent of 15 years of progress has been achieved in just 12-18 months.
According to Dr. Paul Burton, chief medical officer of Moderna, the company will be able to offer these vaccines in as little as five years.
"The vaccines that will arrive - explains Burton - will be very effective, and will save hundreds of thousands if not millions of lives. I believe we will be able to offer personalized anti-cancer vaccines against many different types of tumors to the world population".
Cancer vaccines will work like this: As a first step, a biopsy on cancer cells will identify mutations not present in healthy cells.
Subsequently, an algorithm will identify which mutations are causing tumor growth and are able to activate the immune system.
A molecule of messenger RNA (mRNA) will then be created with instructions for producing the antigens that will cause an immune response.
The mRNA, once injected, will result in parts of proteins identical to those found in cancer cells.
Immune cells encounter them and destroy cancer cells carrying the same proteins.
