The concept
CANCERNA is formed around the realization that cancers can be made immunogenic by ‘fixating’ defective/altered RNA products, to be translated into abnormal proteins that represent neo-antigens without leaving genomic footprints. Recently developed RNA oligonucleotides and mRNAs with improved chemistry and delivery will be fundamental to this task. Furthermore, immune effector cells can be improved by altering their immune modulatory receptors or by retargeting them to the tumour via engineered CARs or TCRs using mRNA, which allows safer and faster transition to early clinical trials
An integral part of the scheme is the utility of delivery methods that protect oligonucleotides and mRNAs from degradation and stabilize the molecule while targeting the payload by virtue of the nanoparticles to the recipient tissue or cells.