Light-activated antibody therapy could pave the way for new acutely targeted treatment of cancer cells. Scientists at the University of East Anglia in the UK have successfully engineered antibody fragments that are activated by a specific UV light wavelength and form a covalent bond with nearby cancer cells.
“A covalent bond is a bit like melting two pieces of plastic and fusing them together,” explained Dr Amit Sachdeva, from UAE’s School of Chemistry and the principal scientist for the study. “It means that drug molecules could, for example, be permanently fixed to a tumor.”
While current monoclonal antibody therapy typically causes fewer side effects than cell-killing cytotoxic drugs used in chemotherapy, common complaints include lethargy, headaches, nausea, dizziness and chills.
“Several antibodies and antibody fragments have already been developed, but they can still cause severe side effects, as antibody targets are also present on healthy cells,” Dr Sachdeva said. “This means they can cause side effects including hair loss, feeling tired and sick, and they also put patients at increased risk of picking up infections.”
The new treatment would see LED lights positioned near a tumor and, when switched on, activate the biotherapeutic drugs that then bond to the cancer cells. The lights could be used superficially on skin cancers or surgically implanted at the site of a tumor.
“This would allow cancer treatment to be more efficient and targeted because it means that only molecules in the vicinity of the tumor would be activated, and it wouldn’t affect other cells,” Dr Sachdeva said. “This would potentially reduce side effects for patients, and also improve antibody residence time in the body.”
While the researchers note that this would not be effective treatment for some variants of the disease such as blood cancer or leukaemia, Dr Sachdeva hopes that if their work progresses successfully through the next stage, this therapy could be used on patients within a decade.
“We hope that our work will lead to the development of a new class of highly targeted light-responsive biotherapeutics,” Dr Sachdeva said.
The team’s work was published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.
Source: University of East Anglia
