Researchers Hope to Repurpose COVID-19 Vaccine for Cancer

The co-founders of BioNTech, Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci believe vaccines targeting cancer could be available before the decade is out. The husband and wife duo think the same messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine technology they helped develop for COVID-19 could be repurposed to target cancer cells.

mRNA vaccines leverage genetic instructions to increase harmless spike proteins, or antigens, in the body. The body’s immune system treats these proteins as instructions for where to attack.

Şahin and Türeci think a similar approach can be used to identify and destroy other types of cells. A vaccine could theoretically be developed to instruct proteins to lock on to cancerous tumors, for example.

The couple have been working on mRNA technology for years, eventually co-founding the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech in 2008. Before the pandemic, the company worked to develop mRNA cancer vaccines, but COVID-19 prompted them to shift focus. Now, BioNTech is trialing multiple cancer vaccines as they move away from COVID and back to their original focus.

According to Türeci, the success of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is helping to support further investigation into the technology’s potential ability to fight cancer. It “gives back to our cancer work,” said Türeci.

While the work is promising, substantial challenges remain. Since cancerous tumors can be studded with various proteins, it is difficult to produce a vaccine that only targets cancer cells while leaving healthy tissue unaffected.

Even still, Türeci is cautiously optimistic, given how quickly the COVID-19 vaccine was developed and rolled out. Speaking with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg this past weekend, she said this has laid the groundwork for the approval of mRNA vaccines by medicine regulatory agencies which “will definitely accelerate” the development of a cancer vaccine. At the same time, Türeci was careful to clarify, “As scientists we are always hesitant to say we will have a cure for cancer… We have [had] a number of breakthroughs and we will continue to work on them.”