Provided by United Press International on 5/12/2004

BRUSSELS, May 12, 2004 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Belgian scientists are making anti-cancer drugs consisting of extremely small antibodies that specifically target tumor cells.

The work of the researchers at the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology, under the direction of faculty from the Free University of Brussels, is based on camel anitbodies.

Extremely small compared to conventional antibodies, this unique class of antibodies has been renamed "nanobodies," a spokesman for the scientists said Wednesday.

Having all the advantages of the conventional antibodies, nanobodies also have several more important characteristics: they are small and they keep their tumor-specific orientation. At the same time, they are very stable, soluble proteins that are much easier and less expensive to produce than conventional antibodies.

So, researchers have recently begun to evaluate nanobodies as anti-cancer medicines.

In experiments conducted on mice, a tumor with a certain protein on its membrane was successfully counteracted through administration of a nanobody directed against that protein.

A biotechnology firm called Ablynx, which released the information, wants to commercialize the results of the research.

From Healthy.net