The COVID-19 pandemic generated interest in the medicinal
applications of messenger RNA (mRNA). It is expected that mRNA can be applied
not only to vaccines but also to regenerative medicine. In the synthesis of
mRNA, by-products that do not have a 5' cap structure are generated, and it is
generally difficult to remove them. The by-products bind to the host's immune
receptors and cause an inflammatory response. To solve this problem, the
introduction of chemically modified nucleosides, such as N1-methyl pseudouridine
and 5-methylcytidine, has been reported by Karikó and Weissman, opening a path
for the practical application of mRNA for vaccines and regenerative medicine.
Yamanaka reported the production of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) by
introducing four types of genes using a retrovirus vector. iPSCs are widely
used for research on regenerative medicine and the preparation of disease
models to screen new drug candidates. Among the Yamanaka factors, Klf4 and
c-Myc are oncogenes, and there is a risk of tumor development if these are
integrated into genomic DNA. Therefore, regenerative medicine using mRNA, which
poses no risk of genome insertion, has attracted attention. Direct
reprogramming and protein supplementation therapy using mRNA encoding the reprogramming
genes or the specific proteins have been particularly studied in recent years.
However, to apply mRNA to regenerative medicine, the further development of
delivery technology that can deliver mRNA to specific tissues is strongly
demanded. Thus, with the development of research on mRNA synthesis/delivery
technology and the accumulation of application examples demonstrating the
potential usefulness of mRNA, it is expected that mRNA will have a big impact
on regenerative medicine.
Author(s) Details
Masahito Inagaki
Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8602, Japan.
Please see the book here:- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/ibs/v9/1437
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