Scientists Will Test a Cancer-Hunting mRNA Treatment
To keep IL-12 inside tumors, scientists at Strand designed a set of instructions called a genetic circuit that tells the mRNA to make the inflammatory protein only when it detects the tumor microenvironment. The circuit is designed to sense levels of microRNA—molecules that naturally regulate gene expression and give off different signatures in cancer cells versus healthy ones. The genetic circuit instructs the mRNA to self-destruct if it goes anywhere other than its intended target.“We’ve engineered the mRNA so that they…