TIGIT:CD155/CD112 immune inhibition (in green)

Over the last several years, the Immune System has appeared as a central, priority target to fight cancer and various other diseases. Currently, in cancer treatment most of the Immunotherapeutic successes, are molecules developed to modulate and restore immune response by targeting critical Immune Checkpoints.

Some of them can activate T Cells, and on the opposite, some can inhibit this response against cancer cells, such as PD-1 and CTLA4, two of the most studied Immune Checkpoints. The majority of the popular molecules approved in Immunotherapy which have led to clinical benefits, are antibodies inhibiting immune checkpoint activities, such for PD1 with nivolumab and pembrolizumab, or CTLA4 with ipilumab.

mRNA vaccines are developing very quickly. There are already 25 ongoing clinical trials against cancers, as well as clinical trials against infectious diseases such as HIV. Recombinant monoclonal antibody (mAB) based treatments that have lead to the most successful therapies could even switch to mRNA coding heavy and light chains for direct antibody production into the patient (as of yet still at the level of mouse models).

Indeed, messenger RNAs (mRNA) are now new biological entities to take in consideration for the development of efficient and personalized therapies. They have several advantages over conventional drugs:

The absence of mature oligodendrocytes for the repair of demyelination lesions is a critical factor in the pathology of Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and other debilitating CNS disorders of myelination. As such, regulating the maturation of oligodendrocytes and the resulting myelin production is an interesting target for potential new therapeutics.

GPR17 is an orphan G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) that is abundant in the CNS, and has been shown to play a key role in regulating oligodendrocyte differentiation and maturation. Unfortunately, little has been known about the exact mechanism through which GPR17 influences myelination.

If you work in Biology, you’ve most certainly heard of HeLa cells, as they have been around for over 60 years and are some of the most extensively used cell lines in Biomedical research. But where did these cell lines come from?