Scientists have discovered this "magical antibody" to resolve one of the common mechanisms of drug resistance in most cancer cells - tumors, cancer cells, and antibodies
According to sources citing the website of the French newspaper Le Figaro on August 17th, researchers at the French National Research Center may have discovered a new weapon that cannot be resisted: an antibody that can counteract one of the main resistance mechanisms shared by most cancer cells. The new antibody NP137 used as a monotherapy can help stabilize or even eliminate certain tumors. The research results were published in the British journal Nature earlier this month. At the same time, it is also being tested in combination with other traditional therapies in phase II clinical trials and has just demonstrated its potential in treating certain skin cancers in mice.
But what is this "magical" antibody? How does it work? Professor Patrick Mellon, a researcher at the French National Research Center at the Leon Beral Cancer Treatment Center in Lyon, discovered by chance that most cancer cells produce a protein. Meren explained, "We assume that it is necessary for tumor progression because it is produced in all tumor cells. Therefore, our idea is to develop a molecule that can inhibit its function, and we hope that this molecule may have beneficial anti-cancer effects." NP137 was born six years ago. This is an antibody designed to inhibit this protein. The preliminary results on mice were convincing, prompting researchers to conduct the first clinical trials to test their harmlessness in humans.
This antibody was used as a monotherapy for 14 patients with advanced endometrial cancer. This type of cancer is the sixth most common cancer among women. The experimental results are astonishing. In the first few weeks, researchers were able to prove that NP137 was not toxic. After injection, this molecule only exists in tumor cells, and healthy cells are not affected at all. Most importantly, one patient's tumor significantly decreased, while the tumor status of eight patients remained stable.
By studying the tumors of patients receiving antibody therapy more carefully, researchers found that cancer cells have "lost" their drug resistance. Professor Cedric Brownpan, an expert in the mechanism of cancer cell resistance and from the Free University of Brussels, pointed out that "during chemotherapy and immunotherapy, the behavior of cancer cells transitions from an epithelial state to a mesenchymal state. In the mesenchymal state, cancer cells become mobile and therefore invasive. This epithelial mesenchymal transition is actually one of the main mechanisms by which cancer cells resist chemotherapy." According to researchers, the phenomenon of tumor regression or stabilization can be explained as cancer cells being unable to undergo this transformation under the action of antibodies.
"This is a potential major breakthrough in the field of cancer treatment," said Davide Tirana, an expert in targeted therapy resistance mechanisms at the French National Institute of Health and Medicine who was not involved in these studies
Although scientists hope to find a "universal" antibody, there is still a long way to go. So far, this molecule has only been proven effective in the preclinical stage of skin cancer and in the single treatment of endometrial cancer. Therefore, it is currently uncertain whether it can avoid resistance to chemotherapy or immunotherapy. Further clinical trials are needed for this.
Professor Mellon's team has already started working in this area. He said, "We have obtained regulatory approval to conduct phase II clinical trials to test the combination of chemotherapy and/or immunotherapy with our antibodies. As a result, 170 patients are receiving treatment."
The long-awaited initial results from the scientific community will be announced in 2024. If they are proven successful, they may change the rules of the game as they will provide an opportunity to defeat resistance mechanisms that have been considered invincible so far.