Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have used mRNA nanoparticles to reprogram the tumor microenvironment of liver cancer and restore the function of the p53 master regulator gene, a tumor suppressor that is mutated in different cancer types. The researchers demonstrated that when used in combination with immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), the p53 mRNA nanoparticle technology—which is similar to that used in COVID-19 vaccines—not only induced suppression of tumor growth but also significantly increased antitumor immune responses in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) laboratory models.
