The mRNA-cancer connection, creepy crimefighting critters, and more

Insect larvae like these can colonize dead bodies and offer clues about time of death. A new machine learning technique can identify species based on chemical fingerprints of insects’ puparial casings.

Paige B. Jarreau/ LSU

By Susanna Camp and Elana Spivack

💉 Power Duo: Cancer and mRNA Vaccines

Recent research indicates that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine may make some cancer treatments more effective. As Science News’s Meghan Rosen reports, even when these vaccines aren’t designed for cancer, they could make tumors more sensitive to concurrent therapies.

👩🏼‍🏫 Teaching your immune system

Messenger RNA, or mRNA, is a molecular instruction set inside your cells. In the case of the COVID-19 vaccine, the mRNA holds information on assembling a segment of the coronavirus spike protein. That teaches your body to recognize the protein and fight it. Cancer mRNA vaccines work similarly, but encode bits of tumor proteins instead of viral ones.

A finding published this past July in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering showed that an experimental mRNA vaccine given to tumorous mice improved the activity of immunotherapy drugs, empowering the immune system to better harness the drugs and tackle cancer. But, the vaccine didn’t include tumor mRNA. The authors discovered that the mRNA itself, rather than what it encoded, galvanized the immune system against cancer.

The authors then analyzed records of about 1,000 people with a form of lung cancer, who also received an immunotherapy drug.

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