Improved Form of Immunotherapy for Cancer Works in Mice

Bispecific antibodies have two arms: One arm latches on to a peptide marker on the surface of cancer cells (but not healthy cells), and the other arm latches on to a T cell. This activates the T cell to destroy the cancer cell. Although such antibodies are approved to treat patients with B cell leukemias, other cancers have been out of reach. In three reports, a team from Johns Hopkins reports overcoming some important barriers.

Many malignancies harbor the activated oncogene, RAS, the inactivated tumor suppressor gene, p53, or both. However, only small amounts of the peptide fragments of these proteins are displayed on the surface of malignant cells, making them “invisible” to previous versions of bispecific antibodies. The research team cr…