Novel cancer treatment identified

Scientists have identified a novel treatment for tumours through quantitative analysis experiments.

In a study, published by Molecular Cancer, and undertaken by a team in Germany, scientists tested whether tumour cells could be specifically targeted in a way that caused no damage to healthy cells.

It was already established that the potassium channel KV10.1 (Ether-a-go-go) was attractive as a target as the protein is evident in tumours but not detected in normal tissue outside the central nervous system.

The team designed a single-chain antibody against an extracellular region of KV10.1 (scFv62) and fused it to the human soluble TRAIL in order to trigger the selective induction of cell apoptosis in the tumour.

They found that the scFv62-TRAIL induced apoptosis only in KV10.1-positive cancer cells, but not in non-tumour cells or in tumour cells that lacked KV10.1.

"KV10.1 represents a novel therapeutic target for cancer," the report claimed.

"We could design a strategy that selectively kills tumour cells based on a KV10.1-specific antibody."