Valuable Vaccines

WHAT IS MELANOMA?

Melanoma is a type of cancer that begins in a person’s melanocytes (the cells that create melanin which pigments their skin). According to a recent article from the American Cancer Society, about 96,480 new melanomas will be diagnosed just in the United States in 2019 alone. Of those people, about 7,230 people are expected to die from this cancer as well. Melanoma is 20 times more common in whites than in African Americans, however like any type of cancer, there are a number of risks that blend into your vulnerability for it. To name a few, excessive UV light exposure, having an abundant amount of moles, having a personal or family history of melanoma, being immunocompromised, or just being older and male increase a person’s risk of melanoma. Wouldn’t it be simply incredible to design a vaccine that prevented against this horrible form of cancer so that thousands of people and their families around the world would not have to suffer?

A NEW VACCINE IN THE WORKS

I don’t know about you, but when I think of vaccines, measles and chicken pox and mumps come to my head, not cancer. However, researchers at Tel Aviv University have fortunately thought out of this MMRV box and have successfully created a vaccine to fight against melanoma, the most aggressive of the skin cancers. According to a 2019 Science Daily article, this new vaccine has so far proven effective in preventing melanoma and treating primary tumors in mouse models. The innovative research is focused on a single nanoparticle that Professor Satchi-Fainaro states has shown “for the first time that it is possible to produce an effective nano-vaccine against melanoma and to sensitize the immune system to immunotherapies.” At the molecular level, this vaccine stimulates the immune system and teaches its cells to identify and attack cells containing the melanoma’s detectable two peptide chain. This means that the immune system will attack melanoma cells in vaccinated mice from now on. The researchers also tested the new vaccination on healthy mice and found that the mice did not have a sick response, showing that the vaccine effectively prevented the disease as well.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR THIS VACCINE?

This vaccine has devised a whole new path into the treatment of melanoma, even in the most advanced stages of the disease. Before these Tel Aviv researchers materialized this immunization, the war on cancer (particularly melanoma) was primarily through chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy which are all very invasive processes. Opportunely, this recent treatment has significantly delayed the advancement of melanoma and has extended the lifetime of all immunized mice in a noninvasive and more compassionate way. This new platform is so crucial to cancer treatment research because the nano-vaccine could not only apply to just melanoma but also numerous other types of abnormal cell growth. Just thinking about how a simple shot could significantly improve thousands of people’s lives leaves me astounded at the wonders of scientific research and hopeful for the future.