Group ‘Pharms’ High Ground for Cancer Research
Published Mar 27, 2006
Even the strongest cancer treatments are not effective if they don’t reach the offending cells. It doesn’t serve a patient’s best interests if such treatments destroy surrounding tissues, either.
Research projects being conducted at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock and the university’s School of Pharmacy in Amarillo are aimed at balancing those two interests in the fight against cancer.
“On the surface of a cell, especially cancer cells, there are target spaces that in layman’s terms are like parking spaces,” says Dr. Jon Weidanz, assistant professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the chief scientist at Receptor Logic Ltd., a public/private partnership between Texas Tech and the appropriately named Emergent Technologies Inc.
The research Weidanz is leading seeks to develop antibodies that fit into specific “parking spaces” but not others. The antibodies, if the theories behind the research continue to prove true, will prove to be a breakthrough in either of two ways: They will trigger the body’s own immune system to attack tumors or, alternatively, to guide anticancer drugs toward the offending cells, leaving healthy cells untargeted by the powerful toxins.
“In the simplest sense, we’re making these antibody molecules, but what makes one antibody unique from another is the target it fits into,” Weidanz says. “We’ve identified a novel class of targets that these antibodies fit into, without fitting into targets on healthy cells.”
Receptor Logic’s research results offer a promise of several medical applications. In addition to being a potential drug delivery tool, some may become research reagents for testing vaccine effectiveness, while others may help identify activity inside a diseased cell. There’s also the possibility of being a contrast reagent that will make diseased tissues more apparent on MRIs and radiographic visualization.
Though the research is promising, it is not smooth sailing. Funding from grants and partnerships is a constant challenge, and regulations are understandably stiff.
“As we go through the process, the tests we have to pass get tougher and tougher,” Weidanz says. Still, the results, and the potential, excite him.
“The early data suggests that one of our antibodies kills tumors in a mouse,” he says. “The next study will be to try it out in clinical [human] trials.”
Story by Errol Castens
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