New paper published in Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy | Department of Medical Chemistry

Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy published the most recent paper by the Virag group. In the paper, Eliza Guti graduate student reported a High-Content Screening (HCS) Assay in which she identified novel drugs affecting ADCC )antibody dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity). If an antibody such as the therapeutically used growth factor receptor specific antibody trastuzumab binds to cancer cells then the certain immune cells such as natural killer (NK) cells can bind to the constant region of these antibodies. The antibody so bridges the cancer cell and the NK cell triggering the activation of the cytotoxic program in the NK cells leading to cancer cell destruction. The HCS screen identified an antitumor drug sunitinib as inhibitor of ADCC. This finding must be considered by physicians if sunitinib therapy is planned in patients treated with trastuzumab.