Cancer is a class of diseases characterized by out-of control cell growth. There are more than 100 different types of cancer. Among them, pancreatic cancer is among the most common and fatal. At the time of diagnosis, the vast majority of patients with pancreatic cancer have locally advanced or distant metastatic disease that can not by removed by surgery. Pancreatic cancer is considered Stage IV if it has spread to distant locations in the body. The five-year survival rate of pancreatic cancer is strongly correlated with disease stages; those with Stage IV exocrine pancreatic cancer has a five-year survival rate of about 1%. Effective treatments are in urgent need.
Now scientists from the University of Cincinnati (UC) have been scrambling for ways to fight against pancreatic cancer. Vladimir Bogdanov, PhD, a researcher and assistant professor in the UC College of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine’s Division of Hematology/Oncology, recently received a $300,000 grant from the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. With the grant, Dr. Bogdanov and colleagues will be able to evaluate the efficacy of an experimental drug that targets alternatively spliced Tissue Factor (asTF) in treating pancreatic cancer.
asTF is a protein that functions to promote neovascularization and monocyte recruitment via integrin ligation. In a 2013 study, Dr. Bogdanov found that asTF is highly expressed in human PDAC (pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma) tumor tissue but not in normal pancreas, and it promotes tumor metastasis in an orthotopic model of PDAC. Then Bogdanov’s team further explored the function of asTF in pancreatic cancer. Results showed that asTF expression and release into tissues is often elevated in pancreatic cancer and it binds cell surface molecules called beta1 integrins, which triggers processes that drive cancer progression. Further experiments in animals showed that inhibiting asTF suppressed pancreatic cancer growth.
Recently, the team developed a monoclonal antibody that targets asTF. The antibody, called RabMab1, will be tested in animal models of pancreatic cancer. Besides, the researchers will also study whether asTF levels in the blood of pancreas cancer patients could aid in diagnosis of the disease. (Cusabio offers monoclonal antibody and other types of antibodies.
http://www.cusabio.com/)
-whcaroline-
Immune cell therapy, the fourth major cancer treatment following surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, has been recognized as the most active and promising treatment in the comprehensive tumor treatment in the 21st century. It is the only hopeful means to completely kill the tumor cell nowadays. As the most effective cells in the human body to fight the tumor antigen-specific, T cells can pinpoint and target tumor cells. TCR T cell service uses antigen-specific T cells to transfect the tumor specific TCR into the patient's T cells to help identify and kill tumor cells T cells. This tcr technology has a promising application prospect of solid tumors of which NY-ESO-1-specific TCR-T has achieved very significant results in the clinical practice of early solid tumor. For the patients with relapsed NY-ESO-1 positive adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma after HSCT, the allogeneic T cells transduced with a tumor-specific TCR by siTCR vector presented increased tumor-reactivity while GVHD potential is diminishing.
-Creative Biolabs-
