An enzyme that helps combat tumours
A new therapeutic approach aims to destroy the protective shield around cancer cells. It’s already working in mice.
This enzyme removes the sugar chains that protect cancer cells from the immune system. | Graphic: NASA
Many cancer cells equip their surfaces with special sugar chains that protect them from attack by the immune system. An innovative therapy now aims to destroy this protective shield. Together with her colleagues in the USA, Heinz Läubli of the University of Basel has taken an antibody that recognises breast cancer cells and coupled it with an enzyme that cuts up sugar chains. Mice treated with this survive longer – not least because more killer cells from their immune system are able to enter into the tumour. This enzyme can be combined with other antibodies, so Läubli believes that it can probably be utilised against other types of cancer. But the researchers first have to modify their method so that it is compatible with humans.
