Monoclonal Antibody ( Magic Bullets ) : A Promising Treatment For Cancer

Immunotherapy uses the body’s immune system to fight against mesothelioma. This therapy has been used successfully when combined with other treatment options. And unlike other treatments, there are no toxic side effects.

Some of traditional drugs may be effective in patients whose cancers have a specific molecular target, and not for other patients. To solve this problem of patient-specificity, pharmaceutical research have seen the expansion of individually tailored cancer treatment, which is an application of targeted therapy, and this is where biopharmaceuticals are. As an increasing part of the population is diagnosed with cancer and as these patients live longer, increasing care will be given to patients who have received these drugs. Moreover, in the case of cancer therapy, those drugs and especially with mABs are a promise of less side effects : recombinant DNA technology makes it possible to genetically engineer an antibody to reduce the risk of host immune response.

Throughout the years, a diagnosis of cancer has been an uphill battle for both patients and doctors alike. An individual faces an incurable disease that is notorious for taking away lives by the numbers. Victims of the pathogen are at risk of it spreading to other parts of the body, facing an excruciating amount of pain and eventual death. If caught in an early stage the carcinogen can be removed through various treatments. However, throughout the years treatments have been limited to patients which can cause physical, and financial hardships. It is not until the age of biotechnology and more scientific research occurred that immunotherapy became a possible treatment for those in need. Immunology has been in the scientific world since the

Many doctors, physicians, researchers and biotech companies--including the revolutionary Seattle Genetics research facility--are now turning to antibody-assisted cancer treatments and precisely targeted cures instead of treating cancer with a cocktail of chemicals and radiation that generate risky side effects and damage the healthy tissue that patients need to recover. Cancers are among the most frightening and difficult-to-treat illnesses. Ranked as the leading cause of death and disability, cancer is actually an umbrella term that covers many different diseases. Each person faces a unique disease because cancers interact with the body's existing cells, so each case has a

Wolchok does not name specific instruments used for measurements, discuss reliability in terms of type and size of reliability coefficients, or name specific control procedures. The success rates of the different types of treatments are determined by visible tumor growth difference after treatment is administered as well as overall survival. Wolchok also notes that measuring success among immunotherapy treatments can be difficult and take nearly double the time to see results than other treatment methods. Even in patients whose brain scans show tumor growth 12 weeks after the treatment has begun, the growth may be indicative of T cells and other immune cells flooding the tumor. Henceforth, the difficulty of determining success among patients being treated with immunotherapies is far more perplexing than patients who have undergone chemotherapy or

It would attach itself to a cancer cell and aggressively aggravate the body to draw in the bodies’ defenses to all out assault that area. In theory, if you kept the patients immune system going, you could bombard the cancer and not have to worry about chemical side effects. Lots of treatments like chemotherapy weaken the immune system, so this would be an interesting alternative. One would first need to figure out a way to attach a “decoy” drug to the cancer cells and have it be one that the body would want to attack.

Cancer is a disease caused by an uncontrolled division of abnormal cells. The DNA sequence in cells can be changed as a result of copying errors during replication. If these changes whatever their cause are left uncorrected, both growing and non-growing somatic cells might gain many mutations that they could no longer function. The relevance of DNA damage and repair to the generation of cancer was obvious when it was recognized that everything that causes cancer also cause a change in the DNA sequence. Tumor suppressor genes are protective genes and normally they limit cell growth by monitoring the speed of cell division, repair mismatched DNA and control when a cell dies. When a tumor suppressor gene is mutated cells grow

Monoclonal antibodies to treat disease, one application of this would be the use of the antibodies in therapy. In this therapeutic application, the mouse monoclonal antibody for CD3 antigen on the human T cells. The use of this was to prevent the rejection of the transplanted kidneys for patients with T cell mediated graft rejection.

Immunotherapy has caught the interest of researchers as these treatments use the own body immune system to to detect and destroy cancerous cells. A cancer vaccine has been the most appealing as it could be made of whole pancreatic cancer cells, so that the body can detect these foreign cells and build up antibodies, so when these cells do show up later the body can recognize and attack the production of cancerous cells. Fortunately, antibodies have been helpful in various cancers, but it has not worked with treating pancreatic cancers.

CAR-T cell therapy is a revolutionary treatment from the area of immuno-oncology. It is the most recent form of therapy to be hailed as a ‘miracle cure’ for cancer and is one of the most impressive forms of immunotherapy to date. CAR-T cell therapy takes advantage of our own immune system and uses it to fight cancer, the second leading cause of death in the world. It is a form of immunotherapy that also intertwines with gene therapy, and cell therapy. CAR-T cell therapy is a deviation to traditional medicine. It comprises of modified T lymphocytes (T cells) that have been genetically engineered to produce Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARs) on their surface, which allow the T cells to identify an antigen located on

As the world continues to suffer from these devastating diseases, researchers continue to find alternative therapeutic ways of addressing cancer treatment. It is on this premise that various immunotherapeutic alternatives have emerged and currently garnering the greatest level of attention and already raising hope throughout the world in addressing the treatment of NSCLC. However, this can no longer be viewed as a discovery but a wave in the medicine world that began in the 20th century. Various researchers have found the importance of the role of immune systems in fighting the growth of tumor caused by cancer cells. A study by Huncharek (2000) stated that specific immune boosters are capable of eliminating preclinical cancers. In contrast, Jermal et al. (2011) found that immunotherapy is an effective approach for the treatment of tumors that have already turned into solid. Similarly, the researchers highlighted that immunotherapy can be an effective approach to the treatment of melanoma as well as renal cell cancers (Lasalvia-Prisco, 2008). However, Jemal et al. (2011) noted that immunotherapy cannot achieve much in cancer treatment due to limitation brought about by the emission of immunosuppressive cytokines and subsequent loss of antigen expressions. Recent development in research studies on the immunotherapy approach to cancer treatment continues to elicit mixed reactions among researchers of medicinal ecology (Jadad et al., 1996). However, recent development in

CD-47 is a molecule found on the surface of human cells, and functions as a signal for macrophages to not “eat” the cells. Unfortunately, these molecules also permeate cancer cells, rendering the cancer cells incapable of being destroyed by the immune system. Through experiments, researchers developed a treatment using antibodies that could destruct the CD-47 molecules on cancer cells. A therapy that could stop tumors before

Immunotherapy is a form of medical treatment intended to stimulate or restore the ability of the immune system to fight infection and disease. This can be by inducing, enhancing, or suppressing an immune response. Immunotherapies designed to elicit or amplify an immune response are classified as activation immunotherapies, while those that reduce or suppress immune response are suppression immunotherapies. Active immunotherapy has been effective against agents that normally cause acute self-limiting infectious disease. However, a more effective immunotherapy for chronic infectious diseases or cancer requires the use of appropriate target antigens; the

Antibodies have two distinct functions: to recognise and combine with an antigen, and to activate a defence mechanism for example by activating the complement sequence (Dale et. al., 1994). This sequence involves more than thirty proteins (Mollnes & Harboe, 1996) and has the function of the destruction and removal of invading micro-organisms and subcellular debris and to promote clearance of antigen-antibody complexes (Dale et. al., 1994). These functions are achieved mainly via complement’s ability to attract leukocytes (Lessof, 1993). The interaction of antibody with specific antigen results in the formation of the antibody-antigen complex. This complex has several functions: for instance, to immobilise an antigen therefore preventing attack upon host cells, to block active toxic regions of particular bacteria, and to allow phagocytic attack.

Monoclonal antibodies have several mechanisms of action by which to kill tumor cells. Tumor cells can be directly affected by the antibody or the antibody and initiate an immune mediated response. In direct action the antibody can be used to block a vital receptor or to activate apoptosis. More recently antibodies have been developed to deliver a drug/cytotoxic agent directly to a cell and