According to a new research published in the journal Cell Reporting Medicine on the 10th, the team of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the United States has developed a nano vaccine to prevent animal cancer, which has shown significant effects in preventing mouse melanoma, pancreatic cancer and triple negative breast cancer. Among the mice vaccinated with this vaccine, up to 88% remained tumor free (the specific proportion varies depending on the type of cancer), and the vaccine effectively inhibited the spread of cancer cells, even completely preventing metastasis in some cases. This platform technology has broad applicability and can be used for the prevention and treatment of various types of cancer, and is expected to be used in high-risk cancer populations in the future.

Previous team research has demonstrated that this nanoparticle based drug design can shrink and eliminate tumors in mice. This study further confirms that the technology also has preventive potential. In the experiment, the team paired the nanovaccine with a well-defined melanoma antigen to activate T cells, enabling them to recognize and attack cancer cells. Three weeks later, the mice were exposed to the environment of melanoma cells. The results showed that 80% of mice vaccinated with this "super adjuvant" vaccine did not develop tumors throughout the entire study period (up to 250 days) and all survived; In contrast, mice using traditional vaccines, non nanoparticle formulations, or unvaccinated mice all developed tumors and none survived for more than 35 days.

In addition, the vaccine can effectively prevent cancer from spreading to the lungs. In the simulated cancer metastasis experiment, mice vaccinated with the nano vaccine did not develop lung tumors, while all other groups of mice showed lung lesions. The team pointed out that the extensive metastasis of cancer is the most serious challenge in treatment, and most cancer deaths are caused by metastasis, especially in refractory cancers such as melanoma and pancreatic cancer. They refer to the immune response induced by vaccines as' memory immunity ', emphasizing its advantage as not limited to local areas, but forming a systemic immune memory that covers all parts of the body.

The first experimental team used known antigens that matched specific cancer types, while in the second stage, a more general method was employed: using inactivated cancer cell material extracted directly from tumor tissue - tumor lysate - as the antigen source. The results showed that after inoculation of nano lysate vaccine, the mice showed strong rejection ability to various cancers: 88% of pancreatic cancer mice, 75% of triple negative breast cancer mice and 69% of melanoma mice successfully resisted tumor formation. More noteworthy is that these tumor free mice remained tumor free and did not undergo any metastasis even after being exposed to cancer cells throughout the body.

Team members stated that this vaccine induces a strong tumor specific T cell response, which is the key to improving survival rates. When innate immune cells come into contact with the vaccine formulation, they trigger strong immune activation, effectively presenting antigens and activating T cells capable of killing tumors.