After 20 years! Scientists have finally elucidated the mechanism of trastuzumab

In the past 20 years, although trastuzumab has been able to dramatically treat HER2 positive breast cancer patients, researchers are not clear about the fine molecular mechanism behind its role; recently, an international journal JCI In the Research Report on insight, scientists from Duke University tracked the molecular mechanism of the drug's effective inhibition of tumor growth by using a mouse model Relevant research findings are expected to help develop new methods to enhance the activity of the drug and effectively inhibit the production and tolerance of cancer cells Photo source: Tom mistrili, Ph.D., and Karen meaburn, Ph.D at the NIH IRP Researcher Zachary Professor Hartman said that trastuzumab is a special antibody targeting the HER2 oncogene, which has become the main treatment for about 20% of breast cancer patients; it can be said to be the most successful antibody therapy for solid tumors However, there are many different explanations in the scientific community on how trastuzumab works as an anti-cancer drug A good understanding of the mechanism of action of the drug is expected to help scientists develop new and efficient strategies to treat different types of cancer In this study, researchers studied mouse and human cell lines and found that trastuzumab can induce a process called "antibody dependent phagocytosis", which is a special way for immune cells to phagocytize and ingest particles, especially for tumor cells coated with HER2 antibody The researchers also found that by adding another antibody to remove the obstacles in the process of cell death, it may be possible to enhance the anti-tumor activity of the drug; relevant research results are very important, because the obstacles in cell death are usually driven by the CD47 gene, which will be highly expressed in the body of patients with poor prognosis HER2 positive breast cancer In the end, researcher Hartman said, the results of this study show that blocking the CD47 axis may help to develop effective new therapies for cancer In the later stage, we will continue to work hard to achieve this goal early and apply it in clinical trials.