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It seems that the ideal drugs have been invented – they are intelligent, they can learn, and they destroy pathogens at source. This is a hope for people suffering from diseases that have not been cured so far. And the direction that medicine will take in the future.
Medicines called magic missiles are antibodies that destroy pathogens. However, there is no magic here. Scientists used the natural mechanism of the human body – the ability to create antibodies against viruses, bacteria or other disease-causing agents. This ability is possessed by lymphocytes, i.e. white blood cells. Were it not for them, the most ordinary infection could turn out to be fatal for humans. Lymphocytes produce a protein that kills the attacking intruder.
Lymphocytes from transgenic mice
The idea of scientists was therefore to use lymphocytes to produce drugs against various diseases. Initially, attempts were made to use animal lymphocytes for this. However, it turned out that the human body does not tolerate animal antibodies. Hence, they created cross-border mice that were implanted with human genes and humanized their lymphocytes. The human lymphocytes that had formed in the body of the mice now had to be made to produce an antidote for various diseases. The lymphocyte, which gets acquainted with the enemy, unmistakably recognizes the intruder in the human body, reaches his hiding place and destroys him.
Antibody factories
Antibodies are produced in tanks with a volume of up to 200 liters, in which billions of lymphocytes work. Building such an installation costs hundreds of millions of dollars. It costs even 3 to obtain a gram of antibodies. dollars.
The first therapeutic antibody was registered in the USA in 1986. Currently, about 30 of them are registered in the USA and Europe, 160 have been approved for clinical trials, and 500 new ones are being researched. The new drugs are to be effective primarily in the treatment of cancer, including cancer of the colon, kidney, lung, ovary, breast, leukemia, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, psoriasis, and even serological conflict.
A drug for osteoporosis
Toxicologist prof. Krzysztof Krzystyniak from the University of Quebec in Montreal explains the mechanism of antibody treatment using the example of a drug for osteoporosis. The disease is difficult to treat. Traditional drugs do not bring significant therapeutic success. – In this disease, osteogenic cells are destroyed by the so-called RANKL factor. When lymphocytes come into contact with this factor, an anti-RANKL antibody is formed, which destroys the pathogen. Anti-RANKL is administered to patients directly into the blood. The effect significantly exceeds the treatment used so far – explains the professor.
Treatment of macular degeneration
Another antibody is so successful in treating macular degeneration in the eye that in 2006 Science named it the Drug of the Year. Previously, there was no effective therapy for this condition. Meanwhile, the disease affects 1 in 3 people aged 75 and leads to irreversible blindness. The previously used laser therapy only in some cases stopped the development of the disease. Meanwhile, the antibody stops visual acuity loss in 95 percent of people. of patients, 1/3 of them even noted an improvement in visual acuity.
infliximab therapy
Professor Krzystyniak also informs that in the case of Crohn’s disease during clinical trials of the new drug, significant therapeutic effects were achieved in 75% of patients. treated. Several antibodies have already been registered for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
The professor tells about a young woman treated with antibodies at the Warsaw Institute of Rheumatology. The patient was brought with a severe relapse. The sick woman could not move. After being given a drip with infliximab, she left the hospital on her own.
Expensive treatment with antibodies
However, treatment with these drugs is expensive. The annual cost of therapy in RA is estimated at PLN 25. dollars, asthma 20 thousand. $, two-week therapy for colorectal cancer 2,5 thousand. hole.
The idea of reducing the cost of therapy is to produce lymphocytes not in cross-border mice but in plants. Tobacco is very well suited for this as it is susceptible to genetic manipulation. The genes of the glowworm have already been crossed with tobacco, and a glowing plant has been grown as a result.
Another problem with antibodies is that the side effects of therapy can appear very late, and we can’t really predict them today. It remains to be hoped that science will cope with this problem.
Text: Halina Pilonis