“The use of messenger RNA is a revolution, for vaccination as well as for therapy”, assures researcher Palma Rocchi

They represent a hope to get out of this long tunnel.
Messenger RNA vaccines, developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, represent a huge discovery for research against Covid-19. But, amazingly, this principle of messenger RNA should actually revolutionize medicine as a whole.

Thanks to this principle, we could indeed imagine, in the near future, vaccines against cancer and nanomedicines against all diseases. 20 minutes questioned
Palma Rocchi, research director at
Inserm and head of the group on prostate cancer and nanomedicine at the Marseille cancer research center.

What is the principle of messenger RNA vaccination?

Cells in the human body produce messenger RNA (mRNA) [sorte de duplicata d’un gène permettant la production d’une protéine, selon l’Inserm]. In ordinary vaccines, the active substance is an antigen [qui permet de créer des anticorps] particular, which targets a virus against which we want to protect the body. The foreign element (viral or bacterial) is injected into humans in a form devoid of any pathogenic activity [donc désactivée], which will activate the immune defenses and then fight this virus.

With vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, you are injected with the messenger RNA of an important viral protein, the Spike protein. This in turn will activate the immune system. This mRNA is quick to synthesize in the laboratory.

This explains why the laboratories have succeeded in creating vaccines against Covid-19 in less than a year. In addition, Pfizer and Moderna assure that they could manufacture new vaccines adapted to the variants in a few weeks …

That is true. If there is a mutation, the manufacturing process being fine-tuned, the synthetic messenger RNA coding of the mutated protein can easily be changed. It’s done by dedicated, reliable and fast software.

Messenger RNA has made it possible to create vaccines against Covid-19, but you are also working on a vaccine against prostate cancer….

In prostate cancer, there is an overexpression of the protein PSMA (prostate specific membrane antigen). We could very well produce these more or less modified PSMA proteins to effectively activate the patient’s immune system, so that it is boosted if ever a tumor cell [susceptible de générer une tumeur] appeared.

Before you get cancer, you have one, two, three tumor cells. Immune patients may better fight off these dysfunctional cells. The goal would be to vaccinate people upstream, so that their immune system fights the cancer itself. At Moderna, some researchers are already working on vaccines to treat cancer. Because this principle could apply to all cancers.

Can we soon imagine an individualized vaccine against all cancers?

Yes, but the sinews of war are funding. It must be tested in humans. Cancer is not Covid, but an often multifactorial disease. In some cancers like leukemia, there is one failing protein, but for others, there are several. Cancer vaccines using messenger RNA could be synthesized quickly. Now, knowing if it’s going to work and giving timing is something else. It is very difficult to make predictions.

Messenger RNA therefore causes an upheaval for vaccines, but also for future treatments. You are working on antisense oligonucleotides (OAS). What is the connection with messenger RNA?

Antisense oligonucleotides are an easily synthesized fragment of DNA that can modify messenger RNA. Conventional therapies target proteins, we are working on the previous step.

For the vaccine, as we have seen, the synthesis of messenger RNA is programmed, it is injected into the cell to activate the immune system. We are working on treatments. With the same approach, but the opposite result. That is to say, we do not wish to express the protein, but to modify or degrade it. In the case of Covid-19, antisense oligonucleotides can be synthesized in one week which will inhibit the production of viral proteins, and therefore slow down infection. This could give treatment for Covid-19. But for the moment, we have not succeeded in finding funding.

Has the pandemic made it possible to advance research more quickly, not only on Covid-19, but for other pathologies?

It has made it possible to highlight innovative therapeutic approaches. We realized that the use of messenger RNA is a revolution, for vaccination as for therapies. But messenger RNA, we’ve known it for a long time. The principle has the advantage of creating specific and rapid drugs. Treatments with therapeutic antisense oligonucleotides (OAS) already exist in the United States. But only 8 have obtained marketing authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Of which 6 since 2013. It is really a recent and booming field of exploration.

You say “specific”… Can we imagine individualized treatments for cancer in the future?

When you use a conventional medicine, for example aspirin, there are effects other than the intended purpose, which are called non-specific. Antisense oligonucleotides are tailor-made, we only target a protein. They could revolutionize personalized medicine. We just need to change consciousness in order to prioritize this research. There are very few in France to work on it. As far as I’m concerned, I was trained on this technology in Canada.

What other diseases could this concern?

The principle can be applied to cystic fibrosis, renal failure, pain… We can imagine treatments with these OAS for all kinds of diseases, in reality. Even orphans! And we could develop them in less than a year. Because in all diseases, there is one or more deficient proteins somewhere. It suffices to know this protein and to synthesize the inhibitor which will target the messenger RNA of this defective protein. I am trying to create a start-up that could help private and public laboratories to use this technology in their therapeutic application.