As the cancer treatment market combining antibody that plays roles of navigation that guide to cancer cells with anticancer drug is growing the research result that replaced anticancer drug with photosensitizer came out.

It is a zygosis of photosensitizer that creates reactive oxygen species that causes stress to near cells by responding to lights and antibody that combines with biopolymer on the surface of cancer cell. Photodynamic therapy using photosensitizer and antibody therapy using monoclonal antibody have been used for cancer treatment in separate ways.

National Research Foundation of Korea (Jeong-hye No Chairman of the board) announced prof. Geon Na (The Catholic University of Korea)’s research team developed antibody-photosensitizer zygote that activates both immune reactions targeting mutation pancreatic cancer cell and cell death process due to oxidation stress.

When the zygote the research team developed was injected to murine model and shooted a light to the cancer tissues the size of the tumors was reduced 5 times more compared to the control group.

Immune cells (Dendritic cells T-cells and natural killer cells) which are important for the anti-cancer immunity treatment are six times more on average than antibody single therapy and twice more on average than metrology single therapy and shows higher immune activities.

The antibody that uses for metastatic pancreatic cancer not only activates as blocking growth signaling in cancer cells but also recognizes cancer cells by connecting with receptors (Epidermal growth factor receptor) on the surface of cancer cells.

However in the case of cancer cell that has mutation gene (Particular modification of KRAS gene) that is showing 95% of pancreatic cancer patients these antibodies can find cancer cell but cannot block cancer cells’ growth signal. Therefore in the case of general antibody-anticancer drug zygote anti-cancer effect is shown as anticancer drug is released from antibody.

The antibody-photosensitizer zygote that the team developed combined two function of targeting and attacking just like general antibody-anticancer drug zygote and simplifies the factors that can affect successful attacking.

It can act just on the surface not flowing into cancer cells and only by shooting the light can attack cancer cells without the need of separation of photosensitizer from antibody. 

The existence zygote had to flow into inside of cancer cells and even after flowing into it the drug had to be separated from the antibody to attack cancer cells.

This research that would be a clue of antibody combined photodynamic therapy about KRAS mutation pancreatic cancer cells is on the stage of determination of effect through a nonclinical experiment the research team said they are planning to promote product development that can apply to clinic through technical transfer or business start-up later.

This research was supported by a medium-sized research project from Ministry of Science and ICT and National Research Foundation of Korea and the result was published in an international journal ‘Small’ on February 16th.
