Cancer Gene Therapy Using Nanobodies From Camels
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - 11:50
in Biology & Nature
Usually when you think of drugs, you think of mules, but camels have also unique properties, except those can be used in future drug development.Members of the camelid family have particular heavy-chain antibodies in their blood known as nanobodies that may serve as therapeutic proteins. One of the most powerful advantages of nanobodies is that they can be easily attached to other proteins and nanoparticles by simple chemical procedures. Scientists at the Department of Pharmaceutics and Analytical Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, have designed nanoparticle systems of smaller than 150nm that are decorated with nanobodies expressing high specificity for the cancer marker Mucin-1, which is connected to breast and colon cancer.read more