Targets on the horizon: Emerging therapies and nov...( AR47A6.4.2 a functional naked ...),Health

A newly generated antibody has been found to be effective against an array of human cancers including those of the pancreas, colon, breast and prostate report researchers from ARIUS Research, Inc., a biotechnology company based in Toronto, Canada.

According to the researchers, the antibody, AR47A6.4.2 targets Trop-2, a protein found on the surfaces of cells and thought to be a key part of the expansive MAPK pathway, an enzymatic cascade crucial for the control of a cells life cycle.

ARIUS researchers report that the antibody has a significant anti-tumor effect in a mouse model of human pancreatic cancer, greatly extending the lifespan of the mice. Subsequent testing showed efficacy in mouse models of breast, colon and prostate cancers. The antibody inhibited tumor growth by 100 percent in a pancreatic cancer model, 90 percent in a breast cancer model, 60 percent in a colon cancer model and 61 percent in a prostate cancer model, the researchers report.

Trop-2 is a novel target a protein that has been implicated in the cancer literature as related to very aggressive cancers, but its exact function has not been clear, said Amandine H.L. Truong, Ph.D., a research scientist at ARIUS.

According to Truong, the antibody that bound to Trop-2 was discovered through a technique developed at ARIUS called FunctionFIRST™, a process that works in reverse of traditional methods for generating antibodies. Most research in targeted therapeutics involves generating antibodies based on known targets. Through the ARIUS method, researchers generate effective antibodies first, before screening them against cancer cell samples to select the most potent ones. Only through later analysis do they discover the exact targets of the antibo
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