Beyond the Petri dish: Testing tomorrow's drugs in human blood
The COVID vaccine is perhaps the first thing many people think of when they hear about mRNA-based drugs. Small packages of genetic material are sent into the body, prompting cells to produce useful proteins in the fight against the virus. But the list of diseases that can potentially be treated with mRNA-based drugs is much broader than vaccines. mRNA is expected to be used to treat disorders…
Tiny packages of genetic material, known as lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), are revolutionizing drug development by prompting cells to produce useful proteins. This mRNA-based approach has the potential to treat a wide range of diseases, including cardiovascular ailments, rare genetic disorders, autoimmune conditions, and cancer.
Researchers at SINTEF have developed a new method to test these mRNA-LNP drugs in human blood, rather than using animals in preclinical trials. This ex vivo testing allows them to observe how the LNPs interact with immune cells and how the immune system responds, using human whole blood.
The findings suggest that testing mRNA-LNP particles in human blood could help identify promising candidates earlier, reducing the number of drugs that fail during clinical trials. In vivo CAR-T therapies, which genetically modify a patient's T cells to recognize cancer cells, could particularly benefit from this method. Such therapies, currently in development, could make cancer treatment more accessible and less expensive.
However, the researchers caution that testing in human blood is just one piece of the larger puzzle. Despite the promise of this approach, there is still much work to be done to fully harness the potential of mRNA-based drugs.
Written by urgent.news from Phys.org's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
