The “Naked” Truth About Antibodies For Cancer Therapy- Part I
Thursday, July 5th, 2007Antibodies are naturally occurring proteins that help our body fight bacteria, viruses and cancer. Upon its release into the blood stream, an antibody can identify and bind a specific pathogen, and by doing so, it can neutralize the pathogen or “flag” it for attack by the immune system. Our body is able to generate antibodies against a virtually infinite number of targets, thanks to brilliant biological mechanisms developed throughout the course of evolution. Once a pathogen enters our body, our immune system conducts a high-throughput screen of all the antibodies it can generate (around 10 billion different antibodies). After the appropriate antibodies are selected, special white blood cells called B-cell lymphocytes enter a mass production phase in which large amounts of the selected antibodies are secreted into the blood stream “in search” of their specific target. The combination of diversity on the one hand and specificity on the other hand, makes antibodies a crucial component of our defense mechanism. This combination also makes antibodies an extremely popular platform among drug companies.
