Covid vaccine development could herald treatment innovations against Cancer and HIV

A flip-side to the research triggered by the COVID-19 virus is the potential that it has developed for unlocking the treatments for several dangerous diseases like Cancer and HIV. Due to the danger that the COVID-19 virus poses, the understanding of it has been very fast. Now, scientists are experimenting with the technology used for the COVID-19 vaccine to develop vaccines for terminal diseases like HIV and Cancer. 

The technology of mRNA has been used in creating a vaccine that builds up the immune system inside the body that protects from COVID-19. Scientists have been trying to use this approach for Cancer treatment for more than 25 years. Scientists are now confident that this can unlock a way to treat other diseases in the coming time.

The US scientific publication mentioned that the speed with which vaccine for COVID-19 was made is unbelievable. 

"Even for people who believe strongly in science and vaccines, the speed with which scientists created the mRNA vaccines we now know — Pfizer and Moderna — was incredible to the point of disbelief," added Inverse publication. 

The publication further explains how vaccines are made and used to treat infections inside the body. The process of three types of vaccine response in our body is more or less the same. It further added that mRNA vaccines are "a critical evolutionary next step."

mRNA for Cancer?

Van Karlyle Morris, a gastrointestinal oncologist at the University of Texas with his team has already started clinical trials to test mRNA vaccines on people who have been cured of cancer with an aim of further reducing the chances of it coming back. 

The study aims at creating a vaccine that can recognize pieces of mutated proteins that are found in residual tumor cells. 

"would be to demonstrate that such a vaccine would train the immune system to recognize pieces of mutated proteins which are found in any residual tumor cells — but not in other, unaffected cells in the body — after surgery and then to attack and kill those remaining areas of cancer,” mentioned the publication. 

HIV treatment

The publication compiles the possibility of HIV vaccine with the help of mRNA technology. Despite the fact that the chances are one in a million, there is an effort to develop an immune system to work against the infection of HIV, informed  William Schief, an immunologist at Scripps Research.