Researchers at the University of Southampton and biopharma business UCB have found a method to improve the natural capability of healing antibodies to attack blood cancer cells using part of the human body immune system understood as the complement cascade, opening the way for a possible brand-new class of treatments.
Published in Communications Biology, the brand-new innovation utilizes a natural function of Immunoglobulin M (IgM), an antibody with naturally high levels of complement activation, and develops this residential or commercial property into Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies, which are chosen for the treatment of human illness. This approach integrates the very best features of both antibody types into a single particle.
The brand-new technique uses basic protein engineering and has been revealed to be efficient in numerous various antibodies. This makes it potentially appealing as a “plug-and-play” modification tool for the cancer research neighborhood permitting them to improve the efficiency of existing antibodies or develop bio-betters from existing rehabs.
The research study was the product of a UKRI government sponsored PhD cooperation in between blood cancer professionals at the University of Southampton and antibody engineering professionals at the biopharma business UCB.
We at UCB might not have actually so comprehensively studied this development without the knowledge and research study neighborhood at Southampton. UCB contributed ingenious antibody expertise, which established the idea and will allow it to further establish in the future.
Reference: “On-target IgG hexamerisation driven by a C-terminal IgM tail-piece fusion variant confers augmented complement activation” by Joshua M. Sopp, Shirley J. Peters, Tania F. Rowley, Robert J. Oldham, Sonya James, Ian Mockridge, Ruth R. French, Alison Turner, Stephen A. Beers, David P. Humphreys and Mark S. Cragg, 2 September 2021, Communications Biology.DOI: 10.1038/ s42003-021-02513-3.