COVID-19 mRNA vaccines may help tumors respond better to immune checkpoint therapy

Competing interests: A.J.G. has received travel funding from Alamar Biosciences and is a scientific advisor for Sift Biosciences and BeyondSpring Pharmaceuticals. J.Z. reports grants from Merck, grants and personal fees from Johnson & Johnson and Novartis, personal fees from Bristol Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, GenePlus, Innovent and Hengrui outside the submitted work. D.L.G. is a scientific advisor for AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Menarini Richerche, 4D Pharma, Onconova Therapeutics and Sanofi. P.S. is on the scientific advisory committee for Achelois, Affini-T, Akoya Biosciences, Apricity, Asher Bio, BioAtla LLC, Candel Therapeutics, Catalio, C-Reveal Therapeutics, Dragonfly Therapeutics, Earli Inc, Enable Medicine, Henlius/Hengenix, Hummingbird, ImaginAb, InterVenn Biosciences, LAVA Therapeutics, Lytix Biopharma, Marker Therapeutics, Matrisome, Oncolytics, Osteologic, PBM Capital, Phenomic AI, Polaris Pharma, Soley Therapeutics, Spotlight, Trained Therapeutix Discovery, Two Bear Capital and Xilis, Inc., and reports private investments in Adaptive Biotechnologies, BioNTech, JSL Health, Sporos and Time Bioventures. S.H.L. receives grant funding from Beyond Spring Pharmaceuticals and Nektar Therapeutics, serves on the scientific advisory boards for Beyond Spring Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca and Creatv Microtech, and is co-founder of and holds stock options in Seek Diagnostics. J.V.H. reports being on advisory committees for BioNTech, Genentech, Mirati Therapeutics, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Regeneron, Takeda, BerGenBio, Jazz, Curio Science, Novartis, AstraZeneca, BioAlta, Sanofi, Spectrum, GlaxoSmithKline, EMD Serono, BluePrint Medicine and Chugai; support from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Spectrum, Mirati, Bristol Myers Squibb and Takeda; and licensing or royalties from Spectrum. E.J.S. is a paid consultant for Siren Biotechnology, an external advisory board member at Nature’s Toolbox (NTX) with stock options, and a scientific advisor for iOncologi, Inc. The Article discusses patented technologies related to RNA therapeutics from A.J.G., C.M., S.H.L, D.S., H.R.M.-G. and E.J.S. Some of these technologies are licensed or under option to license by iOncologi, Inc. H.R.M.-G. and E.J.S. receive royalty payments from patents licensed to iOncologi. The other authors declare no competing interests.