Despite decades of research effort, cancer remains one of
today’s most pressing health concerns. Present day treatment methods tend to
include debilitating side effects mainly due to low specificity of the
treatments.
Recently, some attempts have been made to augment tumor
immunity by using bi-specific, hybrid antibodies that direct immune cells to the
tumor cell, thus increasing the specificity of the treatment and consequently
decreasing side effects. The creation of such hybrid antibodies however, is
predicated on several requirements including: the availability of existing
antibodies that recognize tumor cells, antibodies that recognize T cells, the
knowledge of a wide variety of tumor antigens representative of different types
of cancer, and the ability to produce stable engineered molecules on a large
scale. These formidable requirements leave an opening for a better designed
technology that provides rapid, robust, and inexpensive approach for augmenting
tumor immunity by promoting cell-cell interaction.
Scientists at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute
have envisioned a novel solution to the problem of bringing together tumor cells
and activated T-cells. They have developed a bi-specific aptamer designed to
function as diagrammatically shown below.
Potential Applications
Benefits and Advantages
- Boost host’s immunity for cancer cells
- Molecules designed to bring two types of cells in close
enough proximity to induce T cell mediated cytotoxicity towards the tumor cell
- Nature of aptamers assure simplified and economical
manufacturing in addition to optimal stability
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For more information about the inventor(s) and their
research, please see
Dr. Yan's
departmental webpage
Dr. Yan's departmental
webpage
Dr.
Chang's directory webpage
Dr.
Chang's departmental webpage
