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New treatment shows promise in fighting common cancers
AbLecs combine lectins with antibodies to block immune-suppressive glycan pathways, boosting immune attack on tumors and reducing lung metastases in mice, researchers said.
- Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University developed AbLecs, multifunctional lectin–antibody molecules, and reported their findings in Nature Biotechnology, hoping for clinical trials within three years.
- Tumor cells often display sialic acid-containing glycans that bind Siglec lectin receptors on immune cells, activating an immunosuppressive pathway that blocks macrophages and natural killer cells.
- To build AbLecs the team replaced one antibody arm with a lectin such as Siglec-7 or Siglec-9, and Jessica Stark said AbLecs are really plug-and-play, highlighting antibody arm replacements.
- In preclinical tests the team found mice treated with the AbLec based on trastuzumab showed fewer lung metastases than those treated with trastuzumab alone, and Valora Therapeutics is developing lead candidates.
- Previous drug efforts faltered because lectin binding domains have low affinity and could not accumulate on cancer cell surfaces, so the AbLec design attaches lectins to antibodies for targeted tumor delivery.
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Total News Sources20
Leaning Left3Leaning Right3Center3Last UpdatedBias Distribution34% Left, 33% Center, 33% Right
Bias Distribution
- 34% of the sources lean Left, 33% of the sources are Center, 33% of the sources lean Right
34% Left
L 34%
C 33%
R 33%
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