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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 to begin 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 like Siglec-7 or Siglec-9, and Jessica Stark said `AbLecs are really plug-and-play.`
- In preclinical tests the team found mice treated with the AbLec based on trastuzumab showed fewer lung metastases, and Valora Therapeutics is developing lead candidates.
- The AbLec design overcomes the cancer cell surface accumulation problem by attaching lectins to high-affinity antibodies, enabling effective lectin binding domain delivery to tumors.
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Total News Sources22
Leaning Left4Leaning Right3Center3Last UpdatedBias Distribution40% Left
Bias Distribution
- 40% of the sources lean Left
40% Left
L 40%
C 30%
R 30%
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