The Japanese one is enabling the immune system but it counts on a pair of molecules to find each other. The other one was on Science Friday — Carolyn Bertozzi is one of the 3 researchers sharing the Nobel prize — a few weeks ago also involved counting on a pair of bio-orthogonal compounds to find each other and unlock, causing a delivered chemotherapy drug to be activated only in the location of the tumor. By “bio-orthogonal” they mean a compound that has no interactions in the body. Here’s an excerpt:
https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/nobel-prize-chemistry-biology/
So what this company has done is they have modified that same material with a bioorthogonal chemical. And they inject that material into the tumor. And it does nothing but fill up space. It’s harmless. That bioorthogonal chemical has no interaction with the human body. It’s just sitting there. But then, the next day, they inject the chemotherapy drug systemically. They put it, in the typical way, in an IV bag. So the patient sits there and they have an IV infusion of chemotherapy.
But the chemotherapy is rendered harmless by attachment of another bioorthogonal chemical. And it floats throughout the body, throughout circulation, doing nothing. It’s totally harmless. But when it encounters that material that was injected on the previous day, the two bioorthogonal chemicals see each other and they react. And that reaction releases the active chemotherapy right there locally in the environment of the tumor.
So you get this burst of toxic drug only in the tumor and nowhere else in the body. And it kills the tumor without these toxic side effects. And they are now performing this procedure on patients in what’s called a phase I clinical trial. So they’re looking to make sure that it’s safe and to figure out what are the right doses of the two components. And if everything goes well, they’ll start a next phase, where they look for reduction of the tumor burden and benefit to the patient.
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