Novel immunotherapy approach targets cancers
Appeared in BioNews 1086
Designer antibodies can alert the immune system to cancerous proteins, slowing tumour growth in mice – three independent studies demonstrate.
Researchers at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine, Maryland, investigated the notorious cancer proteins, p53 and RAS. Mutations in p53 and RAS are common among cancers, however, drug therapies have been largely unsuccessful. Therefore, researchers aimed to develop specific antibodies, like those of our immune system, to target these proteins instead. Antibodies detect precise protein fragments, called peptides.
'These peptides can be presented on the cell surface when complexed with the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) proteins,' said Dr Katharine Wright, lead author of one of the studies. HLA proteins present peptides to immune cells called T cells. 'These mutant peptide-HLA complexes serve as antigens and mark cancer cells as foreign to the immune system.'