Cancer patients can rely on THIS drug delivery method for revival

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New Delhi: Patients suffering from cancer may soon face better therapy options as a team of researchers has come up with a new drug delivery method that produced strong results in treating cancers in animal models, including some hard-to-treat solid and liquid tumours.

The new method involves a class of pharmaceuticals known as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), which include some of the most promising next-generation antibody therapeutics for cancer.

ADCs can deliver a cytotoxic payload in a way that is remarkably tumor-selective. So far, three ADCs have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but neither attaches the drug to a defined site on the antibody.

"We`ve been working on this technology for some time," lead author Christoph Rader said. "It`s based on the rarely used natural amino acid selenocysteine, which we insert into our antibodies.

We refer to these engineered antibodies as selenomabs."Antibodies are large immune system proteins that recognize unique molecular markers on tumor cells called antigens.

On their own, Rader noted, antibodies are usually not potent enough to eradicate cancer.

However, their high specificity for antigens makes them ideal vehicles for drug delivery straight to tumor cells.

(With ANI inputs)