Scientists say the vaccine prevents the development of several types of aggressive cancer, including skin cancer, pancreatic cancer, and triple-negative breast cancer.
The vaccine relies on tiny nanoparticles made of lipid molecules containing two "adjuvants" that work to enhance the body's immune response.
Laboratory experiments showed that up to 88% of mice injected with the vaccine remained tumor-free, depending on the type of cancer. The vaccine also helped prevent the spread of tumors within the body, and in some cases, completely stopped them.
In another experiment, a group of mice received a nanoparticle vaccine with an immune-stimulating antigen and were then exposed to melanoma (skin cancer). The result was that 80% of the vaccinated mice remained tumor-free and survived for 250 days, while all mice that did not receive the vaccine developed tumors and died within just 35 days.
The results also showed that the vaccine prevented the spread of cancer to the lungs, something that did not occur in unvaccinated mice.
The team later tested a second version of the vaccine that included nanoparticles and another antigen known as a tumor lysate. When mice were exposed to different types of cancer—melanoma, triple-negative breast cancer, and pancreatic cancer—88% of pancreatic cancer mice, 75% of breast cancer mice, and 69% of melanoma mice remained tumor-free.
Scientists also noted that mice that recovered thanks to the vaccine later resisted the development of secondary tumors when exposed to cancer cells again.
Prabhani Attukurali, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and author of the study, said her nanoparticle-based drug design has previously been shown to shrink tumors, adding that the new findings confirm that this approach could prevent cancer from forming in the first place.
The team emphasized that its work is still in its early stages, but it hopes to apply it to humans in the future. It has established a startup company called NanoVax Therapeutics to develop this type of nanoparticle-based treatment.
The study was published in the j
ournal Cell Reports Medicine.