This new immunotherapy is based on the use of antibodies, capable of targeting specific mutations in cancer cells. This helps prevent the growth of tumors without harming healthy cells.
- Researchers have developed a new treatment for cancer.
- It is based on the use of an antibody, capable of targeting specific mutations in cancer cells.
- It has no effect on healthy cells.
How to eliminate cancer cells without harming healthy cells? This has been the challenge for science for many years, because anti-cancer treatments can have deleterious effects on all cells in the body. In the specialist journal Immunity, scientists present an innovative treatment, capable of targeting tumor cells, without toxicity for others. According to the authors, scientists from the American University of Duke, this technique is more precise, with longer lasting effects.
Cancer treatment: an innovative technique to target cancer cells
“This is a proof-of-concept study, but the results are very promising.”, estimates Jose Ramon Conejo-Garcia, science and technology researcher in the Department of Integrative Immunobiology at Duke University School of Medicine and director of this study. The principle validated by this work is that of the use of antibodies called digA, capable of targeting and killing molecules that promote tumors. They are found deep within cancer cells and have long escaped existing treatment molecules. The particular structure of these antibodies makes it possible to target specific mutations linked to PIGR, a protein expressed on the surface of virtually all cancer cells which contributes to their growth and survival.
Immunotherapy: antibodies capable of reducing the growth of tumors
One of these mutations, KRAS G12D, is known to cause the deadliest cancers. “The study found that digA binds to mutated and unwanted proteins and then moves them out of the cell in a process called transcytosis, thereby stopping tumor growth.“, observe the authors. Initial experiments in mice with lung and colon cancer revealed notable reductions in tumor growth and minimal side effects. The KRAS G12D-specific antibody was found to be more effective to shrink cancerous tumors than current treatments in clinical testing. Researchers found similar results with another cancer mutation, IDH1 R132H, found “at the deepest” cancer cells.
Antibodies: hope for cancer treatment
“We believe this treatment could be used to target a wide range of cancer mutations.”, supposes Jose Ramon Conejo-Garcia. They say these antibodies could be used as targeted therapy against stubborn mutations that cause common and aggressive cancers, particularly epithelial cancers: ovarian, skin, colon, and cervical cancer. , prostate, breast and lung. For American scientists, these antibodies constitute only part of the innovations linked to immunotherapy. They point out that treatments like PD-1 inhibitors and CAR T cells have shown unprecedented durable remissions of cancer. “The immune system is the only system in the body that has two key properties that make it ideal for cancer treatment: specificity and memory, underlines Jose Ramon Conejo-Garcia. The immune system can specifically target tumor cells and can also remember these cells to mount a more effective attack if the cancer returns.”