According to NCKU professor Dar-Bin Shieh, compared to traditional nano-contrast agents, an improved nano-contrast agent developed in the first 3 years of the project can precisely locate cancer cells through X-ray computed tomography and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging and reveal the genetic expression profiles of the cancer cells.
Further, the transnational team has verified that the single domain antibodies of Llama in South America could be a new weapon to fight against cancer cells.
The team implements the production of an antibody by virus that eats bacteria and uses the virus platform to screen different single domain antibodies with different binding profiles and functional effect to the target cancer cells and amplify the desired groups of antibody.
Through the repetitive screening and assay, the team discovered a class of single domain antibody targeting a specific cancer cell membrane glycoprotein that simultaneously inhibit their growth, neoangiogenic activity, metastasis and tumor microenvironment modulation in the two cancer models tested – the pancreatic cancer and the breast cancer.
This finding of possible clinical value in future cancer diagnosis and treatment is currently undergoing patent application and preparation for subsequent publication.
The team will further improve the single domain antibody through multi-disciplinary approaches and to optimize its therapeutic efficacy.
