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#COVID

166 posts141 participants9 posts today

The mRNA technology behind coronavirus vaccines is now being used to create bespoke vaccines for cancer patients.

"Cancer vaccines weren’t a proper field of research before the pandemic. There was nothing. Apart from one exception, pretty much every clinical trial had failed. With the pandemic, however, we proved that mRNA vaccines were possible.

mRNA cancer vaccines work by giving the body instructions to make a harmless piece of a cancer-related protein. This trains the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells carrying that protein. Think of it like a training manual for security guards. The vaccine gives the immune system a guide on what cancer looks like, so it knows exactly who to watch for and remove.

Going from mRNA Covid vaccines to mRNA cancer vaccines is straightforward: same fridges, same protocol, same drug, just a different patient.

In the current trials, we do a biopsy of the patient, sequence the tissue, send it to the pharmaceutical company, and they design a personalized vaccine that’s bespoke to that patient’s cancer. That vaccine is not suitable for anyone else. It’s like science fiction.

The UK was ready. We had fridges and we had world-class manufacturing and research facilities. During the pandemic, we had proven we could open and deliver clinical trials fast. Also, the UK had established a genomic global lead with Genomics England and the 100,000 Genome Project. All doctors and nurses in this country are trained in genomics.

So the UK government signed two partnerships: one with BioNTech to provide 10,000 patients with access to personalized cancer treatments by 2030, and a 10-year investment with Moderna in an innovation and technology center with capacity to produce up to 250 million vaccines. The stars were aligned.

For many years, we believed that research is inherently slow. It used to take 20 years to get a drug to market. Most cancer patients, unfortunately, will succumb by the time a drug gets to market. We showed the world that it could be done in a year if you modernize your process, run parts of the process in parallel, and use digital tools.

We have a trial to stop skin cancer coming back after you cut it out. It’s now completed. We over-recruited again, just like every single one of the trials that we ran, and the trial finished one year ahead of schedule. That’s completely unheard of in cancer trials because they normally run over-long.

What will happen now is that, over the next six to 12 months, we will monitor the people in the trial and work out if there’s a difference between the people who took the cancer vaccine and the ones who didn’t. We’re hoping to have results by the end of the year or beginning of 2026. If it’s successful, we will have invented the first approved personalized mRNA vaccine, within only five years of the first licensed mRNA vaccine for Covid. That’s pretty impressive."

- Dr. Lennard Lee, UK National Health Service oncologist and medical director at the Ellison Institute of Technology in Oxford

wired.com/story/wired-health-l

WIRED · Covid Vaccines Have Paved the Way for Cancer VaccinesBy João Medeiros

How about some promising Covid-vaccine-related news? It's all early on, but it's still nice to see — and maybe buried amidst all the other news.

Nasal COVID-19 vaccine based on WashU technology to enter U.S. clinical trials
medicine.washu.edu/news/nasal-

Newly Discovered Antibody Protects Against All COVID-19 Variants
news.utexas.edu/2024/09/03/new

(Of course, who knows what will happen with any vaccine work and/or availability given this administration.)

WashU Medicine · Nasal COVID-19 vaccine based on WashU technology to enter U.S. clinical trials | WashU MedicineTrial will assess safety, efficacy of next-generation vaccine given via nasal spray, inhalation
Replied in thread

"The act of forgetting has always been a tool of oppression. We cannot adequately resist that which has been revised, erased, or forgotten by our community members. But few will acknowledge that this is happening with COVID. Just as one may utter that “slavery was back then, get over it”, when we use verbiage like “post-pandemic” we are rendering oppression as a static past event rather than an ever-evolving present that shapes our shared future. This tactic has always been useful to those who wish to profit off of our suffering and the cycle will continue to repeat if we do not acknowledge and act on the truth of our current reality. If we do not reckon with our failures to each other around COVID and do the work to remedy it, are we better than those who try to ban our people’s histories’ from the schools? We aid in the crusade to forget every day when we do not consider the pandemic as both current and deadly."

~V. Copeland

forgeorganizing.org/article/re

The ForgeReflecting on COVID, Year 5 - The ForgeVee Copeland, a disabled organizer and former policy analyst details their experience facing the lack of care in movement strategy around surviving the current administration It has been a treacherous five years since the COVID pandemic began.  According to the World Health Organization, more than seven million people across the globe have died from COVID-19, […]

The anniversary of my Dad's death from #covid cardiac arrest is coming up again in June. If anyone wants to support me & my family with our remembrance of my Dad & also help support us in long battle for justice from unmasked #SaanichPolice - please add me on your Signal - phoenixserenity.54

I'd like to compile a bunch of audio messages & any kind of artwork for this year's ceremony of beloved remembrance for my Dad. He died after getting infected by unmasked staff in local hospital. Unmasked cops, including the lead cop, Jason Whittaker - who is president of the SPD union abused us. I also want to compile something to let Saanich PD know - I am not fucking letting this go.

Please record:
Fuck you, Jason Whittaker & add whatever you want to rest of audio recording.

Please create Fuck You, Jason Whittaker or similar messages to #Saanich Police & tell them what you think of their antimasking egotistical loser of a 'leader' they chose to represent them.

“If we were to see immune damage manifesting at a population level, it would look like what we’re seeing today: big waves of common illnesses. Unusual spikes of uncommon illnesses. Course reversal for previously declining and eliminated illnesses. An unexplained, global wave of sickness.”

thegauntlet.news/p/kids-keep-g

The Gauntlet · Kids keep getting sicker as evidence for COVID immune damage buildsBy Julia Doubleday
Replied in thread

"SARS-CoV-2 spike RNA- and SARS-CoV-2-related inflammation persist in the epipharynx for more than six months post infection. Although no expression of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in the epipharynx was evident in these patients with long COVID, genetic analysis revealed activation of [...] the SARS-CoV-2 signalling pathway in epithelial cells, B cells, and pDCs. This aligns with theories that even nonactive viral fragments may possess biological significance. This persistence of inflammation, identified for the first time at the genetic level, highlights the epipharynx as a critical site for continual immune responses in long COVID patients, suggesting that residual viral antigens may contribute to the chronic symptoms experienced"

"After the administration of EAT [epipharyngeal abrasive therapy] once a week for 3 months, the expression of viral RNA disappeared in patients 1 and 2. Patient 3 presented a substantial reduction in viral RNA expression; although complete clearance was not achieved, a marked decrease was observed."

"observed dysregulation of immune and ciliary pathways" - might explain the chronic nonsmoker cough that seems more common now

"These findings suggest that T cells still play a subtle role in the immune dysregulation observed in patients with long COVID. Collectively, these findings indicate that interactions among pDCs, B cells, plasma cells, and T cells contribute to the chronic inflammation and immune dysregulation characteristic of patients with long COVID"

"In the pre-EAT state of long COVID Patient 2, the tissue surface was predominantly covered by ciliated epithelium (Cluster 7). In contrast, following treatment, the ciliated epithelium was no longer observed, and a new cluster of squamous epithelial cells (Cluster 12) emerged"

"EAT effectively eliminates the inflamed ciliated epithelium in patients with long COVID and induces the formation of squamous cells with high barrier function"

nature.com/articles/s41598-025

thanks @MEActNOW

NatureSpatial transcriptomics of the epipharynx in long COVID identifies SARS-CoV-2 signalling pathways and the therapeutic potential of epipharyngeal abrasive therapy - Scientific ReportsIn this study, the critical role of the epipharynx in managing long-term coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and in particular, how residual SARS-CoV-2 RNA affects signalling pathways in the epipharynx were investigated via spatial gene expression analysis (Visium HD). Moreover, we hypothesize that epipharyngeal abrasive therapy (EAT) targeting the epipharynx could improve long COVID symptoms by modulating local inflammation and gene expression. We conducted a comparative analysis of the gene expression profiles of three patients with long COVID and two control individuals without COVID-19. Residual SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in the epipharynx of patients with long COVID, along with the activation of signalling pathways in epithelial and immune cells. After EAT, the viral RNA was either completely cleared or significantly reduced. T-cell receptor signalling pathways were suppressed; the levels of proinflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin-6 and tumour necrosis factor-α, were reduced; and excessive antibody production was mitigated. Histology showed that EAT effectively eliminated the inflamed, dysfunctional ciliated epithelium. This study clarifies that SARS-CoV-2 has long-term effects on the immune response in the epipharynx, emphasizing the need to focus on chronic epipharyngitis as a potential cause of long COVID. Furthermore, EAT may offer a promising approach to alleviating persistent long COVID symptoms.