Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive disease with few available treatments. Thankfully, researchers are hard at work to improve treatment options, and researchers from Japan have now unveiled something promising. In a study this month in , researchers from Osaka University have developed an "anti-cytoskeleton-associated protein 4 (anti-CKAP4) antibody.
" This antibody blocks another protein, Dickkopf 1(DKK1), from activating the DKK1–CKAP4, an important pathway that stimulates cancer cell growth and proliferation. First, some context: CKAP4 is a , a structure in the outer part of cells that can be activated by a specific protein. In this case, CKAP4 is activated by DKK1 to promote .
Elevated DKK1 and CKAP4 levels in patients usually signal malignant transformation and a poor outlook. The research team thus identified the DKK1–CKAP4 pathway as a target for new therapeutic agents. "We started with a recombinant mouse antibody.
Our challenge was to develop a humanized form of this antibody that could achieve the same effect as that achieved in mice models and be safely used in humans," explains lead author of the study, Ryota Sada. To do this, the researchers first confirmed that the recombinant anti-CKAP4 antibody inhibited DKK1–CKAP4 signaling and in lab mice that had received human tumor-cell transplants. Next, they used the recombinant antibody as a base to develop the humanized antibody: Hv1Lt1.
They found that Hv1Lt1 was able to bind to CKAP4 even more effectively than .