Development of Mouse Models for Preclinical Evaluation of Cancer mRNA Vaccines

Since the successful development of vaccines against COVID, mRNA-based vaccines have demonstrated superior efficacy and lower manufacturing cost in comparison to conventional vaccine approaches. The broad usage of mRNA-based vaccine was initially hampered by the early degradation before reaching to the target tissues. With the development of improved in vivo delivery systems, mRNA cancer vaccine has become a promising immunological strategy due to its high safety and efficiency for inducing tumour antigen-specific and long-lasting immune responses. After delivered in vivo, mRNA vaccines are taken up by antigen-presenting cells (APCs), where the mRNA is translated into the target antigen protein. This process relies on effective MHC-mediated antigen presentation to trigger a robust cellular and humoral immune response. As a result, commonly used mouse models with murine MHC molecules are not suitable for the evaluation of MHC-restricted immune responses.