Engineered mRNA has successfully turned cells into tiny biofactories, paving the way for our bodies to make their own drugs to treat various medical conditions.
Engineered mRNA has turned cells into tiny biofactories, producing medications to successfully treat an inflammatory skin condition and two types of cancer, according to a new study.
Messenger ribonucleic acid (or mRNA for short) is a type of genetic material that tells our bodies how to make proteins - essentially, the instructions that direct a cell to make a specific protein using its built-in machinery.
Many will be aware of mRNA because of its association with the Covid-19 vaccine. The world’s first mRNA vaccines were the Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. But mRNA has potential uses far beyond that, including as a gene-based treatment for a range of diseases.
“Instead of going to the hospital or outpatient clinic frequently for infusions, this technology may someday allow a patient to receive a treatment at a pharmacy or even at home once a month, which would be a significant boost to their quality of life,” said Daniel Siegwart, professor of Biomedical Engineering and Biochemistry at UT Southwestern and the study’s corresponding author.
The researchers said that using their Signal peptide Engineered Nucleic acid Design (SEND) to have the body’s own machinery make and deliver therapeutic proteins may improve the effectiveness of, and help overcome side effects associated with, protein drugs currently given by infusion. They said that drugs produced using this technology could improve the health and quality of life of patients with inflammatory diseases, cancers, blood clotting disorders, diabetes, and various genetic disorders.