{"id":35818,"date":"2025-11-20T17:07:56","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T11:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=35818"},"modified":"2025-11-20T17:08:41","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T11:23:41","slug":"the-bright-side-french-scientists-probe-mrnas-potential-to-take-on-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/the-bright-side-french-scientists-probe-mrnas-potential-to-take-on-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"French scientists probe mRNA’s potential to take on cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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AFP:<\/strong> Inside a lab in the French city of Orleans, scientists are testing out the limits of molecules in our body called messenger RNA \u2013 best known for being used in Covid-19 vaccines \u2013 in the hopes of finding a breakthrough treatment for a particularly deadly cancer.<\/p>\n

Messenger RNA, or mRNA, are molecules that carry genetic information from the DNA in every cell in the body to create specific proteins.<\/p>\n

“For cancer, this message will stimulate the patient’s ability to effectively fight tumours,” Dimitri Szymczak, project manager of French research institute INSERM’s ART lab in Orleans, told AFP.<\/p>\n

While mRNA was discovered in the early 1960s, it rose to global prominence when scientists used it to swiftly develop next-generation vaccines during the Covid pandemic, earning the medicine Nobel prize in 2023.<\/p>\n

Today, most research in the field is focused on developing vaccines to fight cancer, but mRNA holds “many other possibilities”, the ART lab’s head Chantal Pichon said.<\/p>\n

“It can be used to boost immunity, compensate for malfunctioning cells”, target rare or genetic diseases \u2013 and even treat allergies, she added.<\/p>\n

There are more than 200 mRNA clinical trials being conducted by both big pharma firms and new start-ups around the world, many of them in the United States, China and Japan, Pichon said.<\/p>\n

But France has “some of the best fundamental research teams working on mRNA”, she added.<\/p>\n

At the ART lab in Orleans, the scientists are making different kinds of mRNA to “test them on cells to check they are not toxic and that they work”, Szymczak said.<\/p>\n

Bunker buster
\nThe RNA used in experiments are usually produced in test tubes, a costly process often patented by US companies.<\/p>\n

However, some of the lab’s scientists are seeking an alternative by creating the RNAs in yeast, which has the potential to slash costs by 10 to 50 times.<\/p>\n

But these RNAs then need to be cleaned and checked to make sure they meet the requirements of the pharmaceutical industry.<\/p>\n

Another team is trying to find a new treatment for pancreatic cancer, which has an extremely low survival rate after being diagnosed.<\/p>\n

The survival rate has risen “from five percent in 2000 to 10 percent today”, ART gastroenterologist Birane Beye said.<\/p>\n

The only slight improvement over two decades of effort shows “that therapies like chemotherapy and immunotherapy aren’t working very well”, he added.<\/p>\n

Seeking a breakthrough, French scientists are trying to combine an mRNA vaccine with ultrasound technology.<\/p>\n

“The idea is to use the mRNA to teach immune cells to defend themselves against this very aggressive cancer,” Beye explained.<\/p>\n

First, a powerful ultrasound is used to “create vibrations inside the tissue that generate gas bubbles”, he said.<\/p>\n

“When these bubbles burst, they destroy the barrier surrounding the pancreatic cancer \u2013 which is a bit like a bunker \u2013 allowing the mRNA vaccine to penetrate the tumour.”<\/p>\n

So far, they have shown that ultrasounds can be used on the pancreas \u2013 and that this technique can improve the results of conventional treatments.<\/p>\n

Next up, the scientists hope they can use the power of mRNA to increase the survival of pancreatic cancer patients.<\/p>\n

Thursday is World Pancreatic Cancer Day, which aims to spread awareness of the deadly cancer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFP: Inside a lab in the French city of Orleans, scientists are testing out the limits of molecules in our body called messenger RNA \u2013 best known for being used in Covid-19 vaccines \u2013 in the hopes of finding a breakthrough treatment for a particularly deadly cancer. Messenger RNA, or mRNA, are molecules that carry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main-news","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35818"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35818"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35821,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35818\/revisions\/35821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}