ADCs, A Highly Targeted Drug Therapy For Cancer

1. Biochempeg https://www.biochempeg.com/ ADCs, A Highly Targeted Drug Therapy For Cancer A research team led by the University of Southern California (USC) School of Pharmacy has engineered a new and faster way that enables drugs to precisely target malignant cells without damaging healthy tissues, which may lead the way to better treatments for numerous types of cancers. The drugs, called antibody-drug conjugates or ADCs, belong to a relatively new category. Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) is a class of biopharmaceutical drugs designed as a targeted therapy for the treatment of cancer. Unlike chemotherapy, ADCs is designed to target and kill tumor cells while preserving healthy cells. Since the antibody is targeted (can recognize cancer cell surface antigens), the cytotoxic molecules can be selectively "transported" directly into the tumor cells to perform anti-cancer effects without affecting healthy cells. To date, a total of ten ADCs have been approved by the FDA, and more than 100 clinical trials are underway studying their effectiveness in the treatment of blood, lung, breast, brain and other cancers.

2. Biochempeg https://www.biochempeg.com/ In a study published on 3rd, Jun. in Science Advances, the scientists of USC described a new technology to rapidly create a homogeneous type of ADC, which attached to a specific site on the cancer cell, with improved efficiency and potentially enhanced stability, effectiveness and safety. ADCs consist of an antibody that seeks out cancer cells, a drug for killing it and a chemical "linker" uniting them. However, ADCs in use today are manufactured through a process that yields varied products of limited stability and effectiveness. Therefore, homogenous ADCs has greater potential for clinical effectiveness. But current technologies for making this type of ADC require multiple steps or long reaction times due to inefficient chemistries. Many homogenous ADCs can also trigger an immune response that hamper its use. The team at the University of Southern California may have solved these issues. "Using our approach, homogeneous ADCs could be made in less than two hours through a single-step reaction, which is much faster and more effective than traditional methods," the main investigator of this study, assistant professor of pharmacology and pharmacy at the USC School of Pharmacy Yong (Tiger) Zhang said. "Our technology features a designer 'linker' component exclusively identified by human enzymes that can quickly catalyze the conjugation of drug molecules to bind the antibodies at a specific position," said Yong (Tiger) Zhang. "In addition to being fast and efficient, our ADC technology provides a new type of linker that connects the drugs to antibodies. This designer linker ensures stable attachment of the drug and rapid release of the drugs into target cells, making the generated ADCs safer and more effictive." Using this technology, the research team at the University of Southern California has developed an ADC that can effectively prevent breast cancer growing in animals. Researchers said that these promising results provided a strong foundation for ADC to transform into clinical research. In the future, ADC drugs will have a huge potential in the anti-tumor market. Biochempeg, a professional PEG derivatives supplier, is dedicated to manufacturing and supplying high purity ADC PEG linkers & Click Chemistry Reagents to our clients all over the world. We offer the full range of PEG derivative development services and provide the most comprehensive media for conjugation research. Journal Reference: Zhefu Dai, Xiao-Nan Zhang, Fariborz Nasertorabi, Qinqin Cheng, Jiawei Li, Benjamin B. Katz, Goar Smbatyan, Hua Pei, Stan G. Louie, Heinz-Josef Lenz, Raymond C. Stevens, Yong Zhang. Synthesis of site-specific antibody-drug conjugates by ADP-ribosyl cyclases. Science Advances, 2020; 6 (23): eaba6752 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba6752