A research paper from the Center for Immune-Mediated Diseases has been published in the *International Journal of Cancer*, the official journal of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC).
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A research group led by Professor Tetsuji Naka at the Center for Immunological Diseases is collaborating with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, to develop a novel treatment for cervical cancer. In this study, the group developed an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting Glypican-1 (GPC1), a cancer antigen they identified independently, and demonstrated its excellent efficacy in animal models.
Previously, Professor Naka’s research group had identified GPC1 as a novel cancer antigen in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (Hara et al., 2016, BrJC).In this study, focusing on the fact that GPC1 is highly expressed specifically in cancer cells, we developed an ADC by conjugating an anticancer drug to a monoclonal antibody against GPC1 that we had independently developed. We demonstrated that when this ADC was administered to mice bearing tumors, the anticancer drug was selectively delivered to GPC1-positive cancer cells, exhibiting excellent antitumor effects.Conventional anticancer drug therapy involves systemic administration, and side effects on normal tissues have been a major challenge. However, the GPC1-targeted ADC developed in this study delivers the anticancer drug specifically to cancer tissues expressing GPC1, while avoiding delivery to normal tissues that do not express GPC1. Consequently, it is expected to lead to a new treatment method with fewer side effects from the anticancer drug.
These research findings were published online on October 21, 2017, in the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) official journal, *International Journal of Cancer*.
Title: Anti-glypican-1 antibody-drug conjugate exhibits potent preclinical antitumor activity against glypican-1-positive cervical cancer
Anti-glypican-1 antibody-drug conjugate exhibits potent antitumor activity against glypican-1-positive cervical cancer