New Antibody Could Be Promising Cancer Treatment

This new antibody combines three distinct functions, which work together to significantly enhance the impact of T cells on cancer tumors.

This unique type of antibody developed by researchers at Uppsala University (Uppsala, Sweden) and KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden), is designed with a "3-in-1" approach. It targets the tumor, delivers a drug package directly to the cancer site, and simultaneously activates the immune system for personalized immunotherapy. The antibody works by directing the immune system to detect and target specific mutations, known as neoantigens, that are unique to cancer cells. This is accomplished by the antibody not only delivering tumor-specific material directly to certain immune cells but also stimulating these cells to enhance the T-cell response against the tumor.

The research, published in Nature Communications, demonstrates that this method is effective in multiple ways. It activates the appropriate immune cells in human blood samples, and in animal models, the treatment led to prolonged survival. At higher doses, it even cured mice of cancer, proving to be safer than previous cancer therapies studied by the researchers. While precision medicines are often costly and time-consuming to develop, this study aims to offer a more flexible, quicker, and safer treatment alternative. The findings suggest that this approach can be tailored to individual patients, thereby boosting the immune response to cancer. The next phase of the research involves optimizing the production process for the drug candidate, conducting additional safety studies, and eventually moving to clinical trials in humans.

“The advantage of our drug is that it is easy to produce on a larger scale, yet can be easily tailored to the patient’s disease or specific tumor,” said Johan Rockberg, Professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. “The medicine consists of two parts that are combined, a targeting bispecific antibody – which can be produced in large quantities in advance – and a custom peptide part, which is produced rapidly synthetically on a small scale for a desired type of cancer. Both in terms of production cost and the short time it takes to tailor a peptide to a new tumor, this increases availability and should make it quicker for patients to go from diagnosis to treatment.”