The progress that has been made in computer science positioned in silico studies as an important and well-recognized methodology in the drug discovery and development process. It has numerous advantages in terms of costs and also plays a huge impact on the way the research is conducted since it can limit the use of animal models leading to more sustainable research. Currently, human trials are already being partly replaced by in silico trials. EMA and FDA are both endorsing these studies and have been providing webinars and guidance to support them. For instance, PBPK modeling studies are being used to gather data on drug interactions with other drugs and are also being used to support clinical and regulatory requirements for the pediatric population, pregnant women, and personalized medicine. This trend evokes the need to understand the role of in silico studies in vaccines, considering the importance that these products achieved during the pandemic and their promising hope in oncology. Vaccines are safer than other current oncology treatments. There is a huge variety of strategies for developing a cancer vaccine, and some of the points that should be considered when designing the vaccine technology are the following: delivery platforms (peptides, lipid-based carriers, polymers, dendritic cells, viral vectors, etc.), adjuvants (to boost and promote inflammation at the delivery site, facilitating immune cell recruitment and activation), choice of the targeted antigen, the timing of vaccination, the manipulation of the tumor environment, and the combination with other treatments that might cause additive or even synergistic anti-tumor effects. These and many other points should be put together to outline the best vaccine design. The aim of this article is to perform a review and comprehensive analysis of the role of in silico studies to support the development of and design of vaccines in the field of oncology and infectious diseases. The authors intend to perform a literature review of all the studies that have been conducted so far in preparing in silico models and methods to support the development of vaccines. From this point, it was possible to conclude that there are few in silico studies on vaccines. Despite this, an overview of how the existing work could support the design of vaccines is described.

In the past decade, mRNA vaccines have been highly discussed as a promising therapy for cancer. With the pandemic of COVID-19, some researchers redirected their studies to the development of a new vaccine for COVID-19 due to the urgent need. With the pandemic’s deceleration due to the vaccines’ success, the research and development of mRNA vaccines have turned to cancer again. Considering the new evidence and results generated by the vaccination of millions of people with mRNA vaccines, this article intends to provide a perspective on how the results from COVID-19 vaccination could now provide new insights for the development of an mRNA cancer vaccine. Many lessons were learned, and new evidence is available to re-focus and enhance the potential of the mRNA technology to cancer. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s mRNA technologies, and their significant advancements, allowed mRNA to overcome many of the challenges and blockers related to this platform in the past, now providing a new breadth of hope on using the mRNA technology to treat many diseases, namely cancer. This study also reports a better understanding of how it was possible to boost an accelerated development process of COVID-19 vaccines from a regulatory point of view. It is also relevant to consider other synergies and factors that contributed to gathering all the conditions ensuring the development of these vaccines in such a short period. Suppose the same efforts from all stakeholders could be applied to the development of new cancer vaccines, aligned now with the new scientific evidence generated from the current mRNA vaccines for COVID-19. In that case, mRNA cancer vaccines are near, and a new era for cancer treatment is about to begin.

Zolpidem is a non-benzodiazepine agonist at the benzodiazepine binding site in GABAA receptors. It is a hypnotic agent which has been shown to be effective in inducing and maintaining sleep in adults and is one of the most frequently prescribed hypnotics in the world. This study aimed to perform an in silico study to assess both EMA and FDA positions on the dose adjustment of Zolpidem based on sex. Both agencies based their position on clinical studies but endorsed different approaches to the need for dose adjustments between men and females. Clinical studies of Zolpidem tablets in single-and multiple-dose regimens were gathered and digitized from the literature. The collected profiles were used for model building, evaluation, and simulation. A 2-compartment model with first-order absorption, lag-time, and linear elimination best described the data. To minimize bias, the distribution of data on females and males were balanced, comprising, respectively, four and eight patients. Simulation of dose regimen comparing the efficacy and safety of 10 and 12.5 mg zolpidem tablets showed that with the 10 mg tablets there was a 69% chance of being more efficient for an individual of the population simulated, for the selected dose of regimen, while the 12.5 mg tablet there was only a 42% chance of being more efficient. Moreover, the safety target for 12.5 mg was very low, with only a 14% of chance of being a safe treatment for an individual of this population. Based on these differences, this study compared the results gathered in simulations with the rationale behind EMA and FDA positions. It is very important that all health care professionals and patients have access to the same and most up-to-date safety and efficacy information, especially in this situation where the discussion focuses on the same active substance, same formulations, same treatment indications, and same target populations.