The DOI matches its Crossref record; 426 of the 435 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
From bench side to clinic: Potential and challenges of RNA vaccines and therapeutics in infectious diseases
Abstract
The functional and structural versatility of Ribonucleic acids (RNAs) makes them ideal candidates for overcoming the limitations imposed by small molecule-based drugs. Hence, RNA-based biopharmaceuticals such as messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), microRNA mimics, anti-miRNA oligonucleotides (AMOs), aptamers, riboswitches, and CRISPR-Cas9 are emerging as vital tools for the treatment and prophylaxis of many infectious diseases. Some of the major challenges to overcome in the area of RNA-based therapeutics have been the instability of single-stranded RNAs, delivery to the diseased cell, and immunogenicity. However, recent advancements in the delivery systems of in vitro transcribed mRNA and chemical modifications for protection against nucleases and reducing the toxicity of RNA have facilitated the entry of several exogenous RNAs into clinical trials. In this review, we provide an overview of RNA-based vaccines and therapeutics, their production, delivery, current advancements, and future translational potential in treating infectious diseases.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Unmodified mRNAs can trigger inflammation and immune reactions when introduced into the body as foreign invaders, thus compromising efficacy and safety [52].”
From Exosome for mRNA delivery: Strategies and therapeutic applications (2024) · cites this paper as [52]
Citations
Cites
Bartel (2004) · doi:10.1016/s0092-8674(04)00045-5 · Cited by 34,714
A Programmable Dual-RNA–Guided DNA Endonuclease in Adaptive Bacterial Immunity
Jinek, M., Chylinski, K., Fonfara, I., Hauer, M., Doudna, J. A., & Charpentier, E. (2012) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1225829 · Cited by 17,116
Potent and specific genetic interference by double-stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis elegans
Fire, A., Xu, S., Montgomery, M. K., Kostas, S. A., Driver, S. E., & Mello, C. C. (1998) · Nature · doi:10.1038/35888 · Cited by 15,429
Safety and Efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine
Polack, F. P., Thomas, S. J., Kitchin, N., Absalon, J., Gurtman, A., Lockhart, S., Perez, J. L., Pérez Marc, G., Moreira, E. D., Zerbini, C., et al. (2020) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmoa2034577 · Cited by 14,592
The C. elegans heterochronic gene lin-4 encodes small RNAs with antisense complementarity to lin-14
Lee, R. C., Feinbaum, R. L., & Ambros, V. (1993) · Cell · doi:10.1016/0092-8674(93)90529-y · Cited by 12,948
In vitro selection of RNA molecules that bind specific ligands
Ellington, A. D., & Szostak, J. W. (1990) · Nature · doi:10.1038/346818a0 · Cited by 9,845
Duplexes of 21-nucleotide RNAs mediate RNA interference in cultured mammalian cells
Elbashir, S. M., Harborth, J., Lendeckel, W., Yalcin, A., Weber, K., & Tuschl, T. (2001) · Nature · doi:10.1038/35078107 · Cited by 9,456
Most mammalian mRNAs are conserved targets of microRNAs
Friedman, R. C., Farh, K. K.-H., Burge, C. B., & Bartel, D. P. (2009) · Genome Research · doi:10.1101/gr.082701.108 · Cited by 8,462
mRNA vaccines — a new era in vaccinology
Pardi, N., Hogan, M. J., Porter, F. W., & Weissman, D. (2018) · Nature Reviews Drug Discovery · doi:10.1038/nrd.2017.243 · Cited by 4,667
Wightman, B., Ha, I., & Ruvkun, G. (1993) · Cell · doi:10.1016/0092-8674(93)90530-4 · Cited by 4,292
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Antoszyk, 2013, A phase I open label, dose escalation trial of QPI-1007 delivered by A single intravitreal (IVT) injection to subjects with low visual acuity and acute non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci., 54, 4575
- Baden, 2020, Efficacy and safety of the mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, N. Engl. J. Med.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Exosome for mRNA delivery: Strategies and therapeutic applications
Iqbal, Z., Rehman, K., Mahmood, A., Shabbir, M., Liang, Y., Duan, L., & Zeng, H. (2024) · Journal of Nanobiotechnology · doi:10.1186/s12951-024-02634-x · Cited by 144
Emerging Delivery Systems for Enabling Precision Nucleic Acid Therapeutics
Bian, X., Zhou, L., Luo, Z., Liu, G., Hang, Z., Li, H., Li, F., & Wen, Y. (2025) · ACS Nano · doi:10.1021/acsnano.4c11858 · Cited by 101
Using aptamers for targeted delivery of RNA therapies
Driscoll, J., Gondaliya, P., Zinn, D. A., Jain, R., Yan, I. K., Dong, H., & Patel, T. C. (2025) · Molecular Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.ymthe.2025.02.047 · Cited by 69
mRNA vaccines: a new era in vaccine development
Chandra, S., Wilson, J. C., Good, D. M., & Wei, M. Q. (2024) · Oncology Research Featuring Preclinical and Clinical Cancer Therapeutics · doi:10.32604/or.2024.043987 · Cited by 58
Dai, B., Zhu, Y., Li, X., Liang, Z., Xu, S., Zhang, S., Zhang, Z., Bai, S., Tong, W., Cao, M., et al. (2023) · Advanced Science · doi:10.1002/advs.202300897 · Cited by 45
MicroRNA-based therapeutics for inflammatory disorders of the microbiota-gut-brain axis
Datta, N., Johnson, C., Kao, D. H., Gurnani, P., Alexander, C., Polytarchou, C., & Monaghan, T. M. (2023) · Pharmacological Research · doi:10.1016/j.phrs.2023.106870 · Cited by 42
Călina, D. C., Hernández, A. F., Härtung, T., Egorov, A. M., Izotov, B. N., Νikolouzakis, Τ. Κ., Tsatsakis, A. M., Vlachoyiannopoulos, P. G., & Docea, A. O. (2021) · Life · doi:10.3390/life11090907 · Cited by 31
The Novelty of mRNA Viral Vaccines and Potential Harms: A Scoping Review
Halma, M. T. J., Rose, J., Jenks, A., & Lawrie, T. A. (2023) · J — Multidisciplinary Scientific Journal · doi:10.3390/j6020017 · Cited by 25
MicroRNAs modulate neuroinflammation after intracerebral hemorrhage: Prospects for new therapy
Xia, S., Zheng, Y., Yan, F., & Chen, G. (2022) · Frontiers in Immunology · doi:10.3389/fimmu.2022.945860 · Cited by 24
Babalola, B. A., Akinsuyi, O., Folajimi, O., Olujimi, F. O., Otunba, A. A., Chikere, B., Adewumagun, I. A., & Adetobi, T. E. (2023) · Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy · doi:10.1016/j.biopha.2023.115099 · Cited by 19
Development of microRNA-based therapeutics for central nervous system diseases
Xia, S., Xu, C., Liu, F., & Chen, G. (2023) · European Journal of Pharmacology · doi:10.1016/j.ejphar.2023.175956 · Cited by 20
Sofroniou, A., & Ridley, A. (2025) · British Journal of Biomedical Science · doi:10.3389/bjbs.2025.14557 · Cited by 15
RNA research for drug discovery: Recent advances and critical insight
Aja, P. M., Agu, P. C., Ogbu, C. O., Alum, E. U., Fasogbon, I. V., Musyoka, A. M., Ngwueche, W., Egwu, C. O., Tusubira, D., & Ross, K. (2025) · Gene · doi:10.1016/j.gene.2025.149342 · Cited by 17
Sartorius, K., Antwi, S. O., Chuturgoon, A. A., Roberts, L. R., & Kramvis, A. (2022) · Frontiers in Oncology · doi:10.3389/fonc.2022.891812 · Cited by 12
Cui, W., Lin, Q., Wu, Y., Wang, X., Zhang, Y., Lin, X., Zhang, L., Liu, X., Han, L., & Zhou, Z. (2023) · ACS Synthetic Biology · doi:10.1021/acssynbio.3c00519 · Cited by 6
RNA-Based Vaccines and Therapeutics Against Intracellular Pathogens
Kola, N. S., Patel, D., & Thakur, A. (2024) · Methods in molecular biology · doi:10.1007/978-1-0716-3890-3_21 · Cited by 6
Tang, Y., Zou, J., Li, Q., Liu, Y., Guo, X. D., Bai, H., He, X. D., Gan, C., Zhao, X., Wu, W., et al. (2025) · International Journal of Pharmaceutics · doi:10.1016/j.ijpharm.2025.126189 · Cited by 6
Transitional Insight into the RNA-Based Oligonucleotides in Cancer Treatment
Tabasi, H., Mollazadeh, S., Fazeli, E., Abnus, K., Taghdisi, S. M., Ramezani, M., & Alibolandi, M. (2023) · Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology · doi:10.1007/s12010-023-04597-5 · Cited by 5
Qureshi, A., & Connolly, J. B. (2023) · Malaria Journal · doi:10.1186/s12936-023-04665-5 · Cited by 5
Aptamer-Based Targeted Drug Delivery Systems
Tiwari, R., Gulbake, A., Kumar, P., Gulbake, A. S., Gupta, R., Bisht, D., & Sethiya, N. K. (2022) · Nanotechnology in the life sciences · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-12658-1_4 · Cited by 3
Nedaeinia, R., Ranjbar, M., Goli, M., Etebari, M., Safabakhsh, S., Bayram, H., Ferns, G. A., Tehrani, H. M., & Salehi, R. (2024) · Current Medicinal Chemistry · doi:10.2174/0109298673300236240529195835 · Cited by 1
An Introduction to RNA-Based Therapeutics
Dakal, T. C., & Gupta, B. (2025) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-981-96-3456-9_1 · Cited by 1
mRNA nanotherapeutics for sepsis: immune modulation strategies and translational challenges
Liu, Y., Wang, K., Gao, F., Bai, X., Yang, J., Li, Z., & Wang, Y.-C. (2026) · Journal of Nanobiotechnology · doi:10.1186/s12951-026-04366-6 · Cited by 2
Metadata
- Authors
- Pandey, M., Ojha, D., Bansal, S., Rode, A. B., & Chawla, G.
- Affiliations
- Regional Centre for Biotechnology (IN)
- Corresponding author
- Rode, Ambadas B.
- Chawla, Geetanjali
- Venue
- Molecular Aspects of Medicine
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-10
- Volume
- 81
- Pages
- 101003
- ISSN
- 0098-2997 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3185845179
- Cited by
- 23
- References
- 435
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 1.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Molecular Aspects of Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India (IA/I(S)/17/1/503085)
- The Wellcome Trust DBT India Alliance (IA/I(S)/17/1/503085)
- Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India (IA/I(S)/17/1/503085)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA Interference and Gene Delivery
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA Research and Splicing
- Keywords
- RNA therapeutics, RNA vaccines, infectious diseases, mRNA vaccines, antisense oligonucleotides, siRNA, miRNA mimics, antagomir, aptamers, riboswitches, CRISPR/Cas9, RNA delivery systems, RNA modification, immunogenicity, translational medicine, clinical trials
- MeSH terms
- mRNA Vaccines, Communicable Diseases, Humans, Oligonucleotides, Vaccines, Synthetic, Oligonucleotides, Antisense, RNA, Small Interfering
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review