Current Advances in mRNA Vaccines for Infectious Diseases and Cancer Immunotherapy

A special issue of Vaccines (ISSN 2076-393X). This special issue belongs to the section "Vaccines against Tropical and other Infectious Diseases".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2025 | Viewed by 4083

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Frederick, MD 21702, USA
Interests: cellular and molecular biology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues

mRNA vaccine technology has proven to be an effective medical countermeasure against the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past two decades, mRNA research labs have dedicated their efforts to gaining a better understanding of this innovative technology. One advantage of mRNA vaccines is their increased safety profile due to the short-lived nature of RNA and the lower risk of integration into the recipient's DNA. However, mRNA’s stability may limit its use in infectious diseases and cancer. Implementing innovative approaches to the mRNA platform is important to increase its applications for viruses, cancer, or other diseases for which no valid therapeutics are available.

This special issue explores various research areas, such as mRNA structure and stability, different administration routes, the use of adjuvants in mRNA technology, and the application of self-amplifying mRNA-based vaccines. Additionally, considerations on the mechanisms of mRNA vaccine that induce cell-mediated innate and humoral immunity are welcome, as are discussions on ex vivo platforms such as organoids and organ-on-chip systems to study mRNA vaccination.

Dr. Sushma M. Bhosle
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • mRNA design
  • vaccines
  • infectious disease
  • cancer immunotherapy
  • self-amplifying mRNA
  • adjuvants
  • organ-on-chip
  • mRNA stability
  • immune response
  • clinical trials

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 4935 KiB  
Article
Immunogenicity and Protective Efficacy of an mRNA Vaccine Targeting HSV-2 UL41 in Mice
by Tangwei Mou, Yu Zhao, Jie Jia, Kai-Cheng Gao, Shao-You Li and Yi-Qun Kuang
Vaccines 2025, 13(3), 271; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines13030271 - 5 Mar 2025
Viewed by 784
Abstract
Background: Herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) is the primary cause of sexually transmitted genital ulcerative diseases, for which no effective prophylactic vaccine is currently available. However, the identification of appropriate targets for an HSV-2 mRNA vaccine remains an area requiring further investigation. Methods: [...] Read more.
Background: Herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) is the primary cause of sexually transmitted genital ulcerative diseases, for which no effective prophylactic vaccine is currently available. However, the identification of appropriate targets for an HSV-2 mRNA vaccine remains an area requiring further investigation. Methods: The immunogenicity and protective effects of an HSV-2 UL41 mRNA vaccine were evaluated in a BALB/c mouse model. The mice were intramuscularly immunized twice, followed by HSV-2 infection at 28 days post boost. Clinical signs were monitored daily, and the viral load and tissue inflammation were assessed on days 1, 4, and 7 post infection. Dendritic cell (DC) activation in spleen tissue was analyzed via transcriptome sequencing. Results: A comparison of the clinical, immunological, and pathological characteristics of the groups that were immunized with the UL41 mRNA vaccine and then infected with HSV2, along with the control groups, revealed that the vaccine elicited both cellular and humoral immunity, inhibited viral replication, suppressed the inflammatory response, and provided protective effects against the virus in vivo. Furthermore, in vitro assays of DC expansion revealed that the vaccine immunization increased the induction of DCs from splenic cells. Transcriptomic analysis of these DCs revealed the activation of immune signaling pathways. Conclusions: Our study suggests that the UL41 mRNA vaccine may provide effective protection against HSV-2-related diseases and holds promise as a potential mRNA vaccine candidate. Full article
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16 pages, 1969 KiB  
Article
Development and Application of Automated Sandwich ELISA for Quantitating Residual dsRNA in mRNA Vaccines
by David A. Holland, Jillian Acevedo-Skrip, Joshua Barton, Rachel Thompson, Amy Bowman, Emily A. Dewar, Danielle V. Miller, Kaixi Zhao, Andrew R. Swartz and John W. Loughney
Vaccines 2024, 12(8), 899; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines12080899 - 8 Aug 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2403
Abstract
The rise of mRNA as a novel vaccination strategy presents new opportunities to confront global disease. Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) is an impurity byproduct of the in vitro transcription reaction used to manufacture mRNA that may affect the potency and safety of the mRNA [...] Read more.
The rise of mRNA as a novel vaccination strategy presents new opportunities to confront global disease. Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) is an impurity byproduct of the in vitro transcription reaction used to manufacture mRNA that may affect the potency and safety of the mRNA vaccine in patients. Careful quantitation of dsRNA during manufacturing is critical to ensure that residual dsRNA is minimized in purified mRNA drug substances. In this work, we describe the development and implementation of a sandwich Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) to quantitate nanogram quantities of residual dsRNA contaminants in mRNA process intermediates using readily available commercial reagents. This sandwich ELISA developed in this study follows a standard protocol and can be easily adapted to most research laboratory environments. Additionally, a liquid handler coupled with an automated robotics system was utilized to increase assay throughput, improve precision, and reduce the analyst time requirement. The final automated sandwich ELISA was able to measure <10 ng/mL of dsRNA with a specificity for dsRNA over 2000-fold higher than mRNA, a variability of <15%, and a throughput of 72 samples per day. Full article
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