Mini but mighty: Using ‘minibodies’ to detect and treat breast and prostate cancer
Cancer types:
Breast cancer
Prostate cancer
Project period:
–
Research institute:
University of California
Award amount:
£248,925
Location:
USA
Dr Tanya Stoyanova and her team are developing a new way to identify and target breast and prostate cancer cells in the body using tiny molecular ‘flags’, called minibodies.
Hope for the future
Being able to accurately detect and identify cancer in the body is important- it helps doctors know where to target treatments, and also monitor how well treatments are working. Epithelial cancers develop in epithelial tissues and account for 80–90% of all cancer cases.
With your funding, Dr. Stoyanova and her team are developing an innovative new type of molecular tool to detect and treat prostate, breast, and potentially other epithelial cancers. The tool will be based on a small fragment of protein called a ‘minibody’. The team hope to engineer the minibody so it can stick to prostate and breast cancer cells and act a bit like a flag. They will then test whether different versions of this tool could make it easier to spot cancer cells on imaging scans. Furthermore, Stoyanova lab will use these minibody flags to deliver special targeted cancer treatment.
This project has real potential to improve detection and treatment of cancer- bringing hope for patients not only with prostate and breast cancers, but with many other different types of cancer too.
Meet the scientist
Tanya is a first-generation immigrant to the United States and the first woman in her family with a graduate degree. She was born and raised in the city of Varna, Bulgaria, where she became interested in cancer biology. At the age of 21, she moved on her own to the United States to pursue her scientific career with the big dream of one day leading her own independent cancer research program and contributing to the improvement of human health. She loves science, and outside the lab, she loves running and biking on the beach.
The science
Many cancer cells produce large amounts of a protein called Trop2. This protein sticks out from the surface of cancer cells, but it does not appear to be produced in large quantities in healthy cells. Dr. Stoyanova believe that this could make Trop2 an ideal molecule for detecting and treating cancer cells.
During this project the team will develop several different types of minibodies which can stick to Trop2. One type of minibody will be attached to an element called gallium, which can be used in imaging to help detect cancer during scans. Another type will be attached to an element called lutetium. This molecule can be used to deliver tiny amounts of targeted radiotherapy directly to the cancer cell to eliminate the cancer cells, while avoiding healthy cells.
The team will test how safe and effective these new minibodies are in mice with cancer, and if they could potentially be used to detect and treat cancer in humans. Prostate and breast cancer cells are known to produce large amounts of Trop2, so the team will test the minibodies in these types of cancer first. But other cancers like lung, bladder, ovarian and many other cancers also produce lots of Trop2 too. This means that this work has the potential to ultimately help huge numbers of cancer patients worldwide.
The funding from Worldwide Cancer Research will have a tremendous impact on my lab. The funding will allow us to move forward with this very exciting and promising project that holds a great promise to improve the detection and treatment of prostate, breast, and potentially many other cancer types.
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