AsianScientist (Aug. 1, 2014) – Scientists have developed an artificial antibody against the cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) into a treatment for lung cancer. This research has been published as the cover story of the journal Molecular Therapy.
Numerous multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have invested astronomical amounts of money in research for the development of protein therapeutics with low side effects and high efficacy. More than 20 kinds of such therapeutics are currently under clinical trials, and over 100 drugs are under clinical investigation.
Antibody-based therapeutics make up the majority of drugs on trial today, attracting the lions share of investment. However, the cost of producing antibodies is high because they has large molecular weights and complex structural properties, making them difficult to engineer.
In order to overcome the existing limitations of antibody-based therapeutics, Professor Kim Hak-Sung from KAIST developed an artificial antibody, or repebody, based on repeated modules which increase its binding affinity. The repebody was designed to target IL-6, an immune protein that activates cancer pathways when abnormally expressed.
When tested in cell-based an animal experiments, the anti-IL-6 repebody showed low immunogenicity and was able to strongly inhibit the proliferation of non-small-cell lung cancer. Furthermore, by investigating the complex structure of the repebody with IL-6, Prof. Kim has identified its mechanism of action, which could be used to enhance the therapeutic potential of the repebody.
Prof. Kim and his team are currently carrying out pre-clinical trials on animals with experimentally induced non-small-cell lung cancer, with the aim of taking the repebody to human trials.
The article can be found at: Lee et al. (2014) A High-Affinity Protein Binder that Blocks the IL-6/STAT3 Signaling Pathway Effectively Suppresses Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer.
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Source: KAIST.
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