Repurposing COVID-19 (and other) mRNA vaccines to boost cancer immunotherapy efficacy: mechanistic insights and future directions

A recent study by Grippin et al showed that COVID-19 mRNA-lipid nanoparticle vaccines can be strategically implemented to fundamentally reshape the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and boost the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) even in patients bearing cancer types that are usually refractory to ICIs. Mechanistically, innate immunological responses elicited by COVID-19 mRNA vaccine negate multiple tumor-associated immune evasion mechanisms and ultimately enable functionally competent polyclonal antitumor CD8 + T responses. As many mRNA vaccines are already, or on the point of being, approved for human use, the translational potential of therapies combining mRNA vaccines with ICIs is unprecedented. Indeed, the strategic repurposing of COVID-19 (and other) mRNA vaccines represents a clinically feasible and immediately translatable approach to potentiate the efficacy of ICI-based cancer immunotherapy.