The blood-brain barrier blocks the entry of antibodies into the brain. This limits the potential use of antibody therapeutics to treat brain diseases, such as brain tumors. Elsewhere in the body, more than 100 United States Food and Drug Administration-approved therapeutic antibodies are used by medical teams to treat cancers and autoimmune, infectious and metabolic diseases. Now researchers report that the site-directed addition of an FDA-approved, biodegradable polymer at the hinge and near hinge regions of the therapeutic antibody trastuzumab effectively facilitated the brain delivery of this human monoclonal IgG1 antibody.
Read more …An enhanced brain delivery of antibodies heightens the potential to treat brain diseases
Many bacterial pathogens use small injection apparatuses to manipulate the cells of their hosts, such as humans, so that they can spread throughout the body. To do this, they need to fill their syringes with the relevant injection agent. A technique that tracks the individual movement of proteins revealed how bacteria accomplish this challenging task.
Read more …Bacteria load their syringes
Mutations of the tumor suppressor p53 not only have a growth-promoting effect on the cancer cells themselves, but also influence the cells in the tumor's microenvironment. Scientists have now shown that p53-mutated mouse breast cancer cells reprogram fat cells. The manipulated fat cells create an inflammatory microenvironment, impairing the immune response against the tumor and thus promoting cancer growth.
Read more …Reprogrammed fat cells support tumor growth