This article got me take a look at this thread. Deathly quiet! I know next very little about this, but am pretty sure that one of these days some unprofitable biotech is going to come in with pretty strong results using monoclonal antibodies (sounds like that is what is going on here, anyway) and go on an upwards tear despite any financial hardship. I don't want to miss that party, so always looking.
Doctors take aim against cancer with magic bullet
LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists are close to testing a
genetically engineered ''magic bullet'' that could treat half of
the most common cancers, New Scientist magazine said Wednesday.
Early laboratory tests have shown that the ''bullets,''
which destroy the tumors by injecting them with a deadly toxin,
were effective in treating adenocarcinomas which are found in
lung, ovary, prostate, colon and breast cancers.
Clinical trials with colon cancer sufferers could begin
within the next 15 months.
A magic bullet is a treatment that targets the cancerous
cells without harming any of the healthy cells around them --
unlike chemotherapy which can harm healthy cells and result in
serious side-effects.
''Medical Targeting Recognition (MTR) Technologies, the
Jerusalem-based company that developed the bullets, say that
they might work better than other such treatments because their
toxins actually penetrate cancer cells,'' the magazine said.
Earlier attempts at the approach failed because although the
antibodies on the bullets found the cancerous cells they could
not penetrate and destroy them without harming healthy cells as
well.
MTR developed fusion proteins that isolate the dangerous
cells and inject them with a bacterial toxin while leaving
healthy cells alone.
One half of the re-engineered protein binds to the receptor
on adenocarcinoma cells and the second half fires a fatal dose
of the toxin that kills them by preventing them from making
proteins.
''The Israelis modified the natural toxin so that immune
cells previously exposed to the bacteria would not recognize and
attack it,'' the magazine explained.
Seragen, a Massachusetts-based company, is using a similar
approach against a rare form of leukemia called cutaneous T cell
lymphoma.
Its protein binds to a site on the cancer cells called
interleukin-2 growth factor receptor to fire the toxin. It is
already close to completing clinical trails and is applying to
the U.S. Food and Drug administration for approval of the drug.
^REUTERS@ |
