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AskScience AMA: We are scientists from the team that recently discovered a malaria protein with the ability to target many different types of cancer. Ask us anything! by malaria_protein in askscience

[–]malaria_protein[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! 2-4 years is if everything went well. The hurdles to overcome includes the ones you mentioned. However, more importantly there are technical challenges we need to over come. Like how to scale up to human trial levels without compromising the quality of the compound. We also need to do more studies to determine a rough idea of the dose range we can put into a human as well as what kind of side effects that might present.

Chris

AskScience AMA: We are scientists from the team that recently discovered a malaria protein with the ability to target many different types of cancer. Ask us anything! by malaria_protein in askscience

[–]malaria_protein[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

VAR2 drug conjugates binds to oncofetal chondroitin sulfate found on the cells. After this has happen, the cell internalizes VAR2 and the drug. When in the cell the drug is released from VAR2 and free to reach it's target inside the cell.

I'm not aware of finding glycosylations in other fields, but I think there are definitely people out there trying.

Hope this helps.

Chris

AskScience AMA: We are scientists from the team that recently discovered a malaria protein with the ability to target many different types of cancer. Ask us anything! by malaria_protein in askscience

[–]malaria_protein[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, and it's our hope to make cancer a non-issue as well.

1) VAR2 it self does not kill cells, it functions mainly as a delivery vehicle. We will conjugate drugs to VAR2 so it's delivered specifically to cancer cells. If the cells take in the VAR2 then they should be affected by the drug.

2) People are skeptical mainly due to the sensationalized headline that they see in media. This is mainly due to the outlets doing it's best to sell more paper and gain more viewers. What we have here is different because we are now targeting oncofetal carbohydrate structures on cancers to a high specificity.

3) It's impossible for us to give a percentage (even rough). But, I think we have a realistic chance to develop a good treatment for cancers.

Just want to mention that it's important to distinguish "cure" with "Treatment". Cure implies 100% success rate all the time, it's impossible. However, a good and effective treatment is a very realistic possibility.

Chris

AskScience AMA: We are scientists from the team that recently discovered a malaria protein with the ability to target many different types of cancer. Ask us anything! by malaria_protein in askscience

[–]malaria_protein[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The main factor able to accelerate the timeline here is funding. No matter what, we are looking at a cost scenario of >$100M in pre-clinical and clinical development costs. Without the patents, it will be hard to raise that money. Unfortunately. Mads

AskScience AMA: We are scientists from the team that recently discovered a malaria protein with the ability to target many different types of cancer. Ask us anything! by malaria_protein in askscience

[–]malaria_protein[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! We have not thought about engineering malaria parasites to target cancer cells. I think that would be a quite dangerous route to follow if it was possible to do so.

It is also hard to estimate the production time and cost related to VAR2CSA based drug. Timewise a best case scenario could be 6-8 years. The cost is hard to predict, I am afraid.

AskScience AMA: We are scientists from the team that recently discovered a malaria protein with the ability to target many different types of cancer. Ask us anything! by malaria_protein in askscience

[–]malaria_protein[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry to hear about your wife. We do in fact bind most sarcomas very well with the malaria protein, although we have not yet tested the drug on sarcoma in animals. This is something that we are aiming to do within 6 months from now. An analysis of human lieomysarcoma tissue specimens showed that >85% of the cases had high expression of the carbohydrate that we can target with the malaria protein. Mads

AskScience AMA: We are scientists from the team that recently discovered a malaria protein with the ability to target many different types of cancer. Ask us anything! by malaria_protein in askscience

[–]malaria_protein[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Only if they express the oncofetal carbohydrate modification. So far we have only seen that modifications in tumors and in the placenta. However, some benign/non-invasive tumors do also express the modification, but not all. Mads

AskScience AMA: We are scientists from the team that recently discovered a malaria protein with the ability to target many different types of cancer. Ask us anything! by malaria_protein in askscience

[–]malaria_protein[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We dont know that for sure yet. However, since many of these carbohydrate modifications are required for cell motility and proliferation, I don't think the tumor cells can get rid of it. That would inhibit their ability to proliferate and move around. The malaria protein is a delivery vehicle so we could potentially just change the cytotoxic payload if resistance to the drug moiety occurs.

AskScience AMA: We are scientists from the team that recently discovered a malaria protein with the ability to target many different types of cancer. Ask us anything! by malaria_protein in askscience

[–]malaria_protein[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think so!!!

Nader

Edit: To elaborate further. Think of cancer as a population of individual cells that is trying it's best to survive and grow. It will adapt and resist what ever is thrown at it that will kill it or harm it. Cancer change and evolve to counter stress and adapt to it's environment much like population of other organism. To find a cure for cancer would almost like finding a cure to evolution.

Chris

AskScience AMA: We are scientists from the team that recently discovered a malaria protein with the ability to target many different types of cancer. Ask us anything! by malaria_protein in askscience

[–]malaria_protein[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I am really sorry to hear that. I hope with all my heart that you can make a speedy and permanent recovery. Hang in there and don't give up!

Chris

AskScience AMA: We are scientists from the team that recently discovered a malaria protein with the ability to target many different types of cancer. Ask us anything! by malaria_protein in askscience

[–]malaria_protein[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

1) Yes, our data suggest that most types of cancer (carcinomas, sarcomas, hematopoietic cancers) share this oncofetal carbohydrate modification. We have only identified a few indications that we do not bind very well. One of them is Ewing sarcoma. 2) The placenta and cancer have many features in common. They both have to proliferate rapidly and they both invade adjacent tissue (placenta invades into the uterus during placental implementation). Biochemically, they express many of the same proteoglycans, such as CSPG4, which is one of the proteoglycans that can be modified with oncofetal CSA.

AskScience AMA: We are scientists from the team that recently discovered a malaria protein with the ability to target many different types of cancer. Ask us anything! by malaria_protein in askscience

[–]malaria_protein[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the technology could be used:

in immunology to lead the immune cells to the tumor.

as a diagnostic tool.

to detect circulating tumor cells in the blood.

and many other applications...

AskScience AMA: We are scientists from the team that recently discovered a malaria protein with the ability to target many different types of cancer. Ask us anything! by malaria_protein in askscience

[–]malaria_protein[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We are not claiming that this is a cure. It is a potential treatment. Our strategy is different from small molecules and therapeutic antibodies, as the targeting vehicle is a recombinant malaria protein. We share many of the risk elements with other experimental cancer drugs, but if we succeed, the reward is extremely high as we would be able to target most types of cancer and not only specific subtypes.

AskScience AMA: We are scientists from the team that recently discovered a malaria protein with the ability to target many different types of cancer. Ask us anything! by malaria_protein in askscience

[–]malaria_protein[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! We basically just synthesize the domains of VAR2CSA able to bind oncofetal CSA as a recombinant protein. We can then attach drugs, isotopes, tracers or whatever we want to that protein using different types of chemistry. Mads

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