A small team of Israeli scientists believes a complete cure for cancer is within reach, even optimistically predicting that it will be found within the year.
Aridor, chairman of the board of AEBi and CEO Dr. Ilan Morad, say the AEBi anti-cancer treatment, which they call MuTaTo (multi-target toxin) is essentially on the scale of a cancer antibiotic – a disruption technology of the highest order. They are using peptides.
The team told the Post that their treatment is a multitarget approach using a combination of several peptides for each cancer cell, reportedly eliminating the chance to be evaded by a mutation.
MuTaTo is using a combination of several cancer-targeting peptides for each cancer cell at the same time, combined with a strong peptide toxin that would kill cancer cells specifically. By using at least three targeting peptides on the same structure with a strong toxin, AEBi made sure that the treatment will not be affected by mutations. Cancer cells can mutate in such a way that targeted receptors are dropped by the cancer.
Some cancer tumors erect shields which create access problems to large molecules, such as antibodies. MuTaTo acts like an octopus or a piece of spaghetti and can sneak into places where other large molecules cannot reach. Morad said the peptide parts of MuTaTo are very small (12 amino acids long) and lack a rigid structure.
AEBi finished its first exploratory mice experiment, which inhibited human cancer cell growth and had no effect at all on healthy mice cells, in addition to several in-vitro trials. AEBi will soon begin a round of clinical trials which could be completed within a few years and would make the treatment available in specific cases.
The solution will hit and activate or deactivate any protein-based target.
They are able to optimise. They have an unparalleled high “signal to noise” ratio.
They dramatically expand the range of targets, to include even the most challenging ones.
AEBi Platform features:
No limit on the number of rounds in the screening process.
Hitting the hardest targets.
Each round has both affinity and efficacy properties.
AEBi (Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies) is a development-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in discovery and development of therapeutic peptides. They developed a combinatorial biology screening platform technology which they call the SoAP platform. It provides functional leads to very difficult targets.
"The probability of having multiple mutations that would modify all the targeted receptors decreases dramatically with the number of targets used," Morad continued. "Instead of attacking the receivers one at a time, we attack the receivers three at a time; even cancer cannot mutate three receptors at the same time."
The potentially game-changing anti-cancer drug is based on SoAP technology, which belongs to the phage display group of technologies. They introduce DNA coding for a protein, such as an antibody, into a bacteriophage – a virus that infects bacteria. The protein is then displayed on the surface of the phage. Researchers can use these protein-displaying phages to screen for interactions with other proteins, DNA sequences and small molecules.
In 2018, a team of scientists won the Nobel Prize for their work on phage display in the directed evolution of new proteins – in particular, for the production of antibody therapeutics.
AEBi is doing something similar but with peptides, compounds of two or more amino acids linked in a chain. According to Morad, peptides have several advantages over antibodies, including that they are smaller, cheaper, and easier to produce and regulate.
This prospective cure for cancer, if successful, promises victory over a major scourge.
Source: The Jerusalem Post