Researchers from Uppsala University and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, have designed a new antibody that could lead to a cure for cancer. The antibody is unique in its “3 in 1” design, comprising three critical functions that enhance the immune system’s power against cancer. It attacks cancer cells, delivers drugs, and activates immune cells simultaneously.
The innovation relates to a crucial protein in the immune system known as CD40. For more than 15 years, scientists have been studying how antibodies may modulate this protein in the fight against cancer, and now they have succeeded in developing an antibody with precision treatment for a range of cancers.
This new antibody acts on neoantigens-specific mutations and gene changes that occur only in tumor cells. The treatment delivers these tumor-specific markers right to immune cells, while also cranking up the dial on the cells’ response to the cancer, making them much more aggressive. This amplifies the activities of T-cells against tumors.
The results derived from this study are very encouraging. Not only did the new antibody activate the immune cells in human blood, but it was also successful in animal models. Thus treated, the mice survived longer. At a higher dose, some of the mice were cured of their cancers. More importantly, at the doses used, treatment appeared much safer compared with many existing treatments for cancer.
It has a long list of advantages compared to the first treatment. For example, it is easier and less expensive to produce. It consists of two units: the bispecific targeting antibody is the first unit, and the other one is a custom peptide. One advantage of this new treatment is that researchers can produce the antibody in large quantities in advance. While they can quickly synthesize the peptide as needed, based on the type of cancer.
The current approaches to the development of therapies against cancer are time-consuming and expensive to develop. The new technique can prove to be faster and more flexible than the existing approaches. This process helps make treatments available to cancer patients much quicker once they are diagnosed. Researchers will need to further optimize the production process before starting clinical trials in humans.
This breakthrough, according to the researchers, could open the way for much safer and highly personalized treatment options for cancer. This new antibody has the potential to increase survival rates. And better target cancerous cells, bringing fresh hope to patients with hard-to-treat cancers. But later, they all shifted to areas where they dealt with their tasks.
-ANI