Researcher identifies part of cancer cell that tells the body to fight cancer.(Brief Article)

2002 APR 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In a presentation at the International Society of Preventive Oncology meeting at the Pasteur Institute (Feb. 2002), a U.S. researcher reported that he has identified the part of the cancer cell that alerts the body's immune system to produce antibodies to fight the cancer.

The finding provides a structural framework for the development of a synthetic vaccine that may have the potential to help the body defend itself against most, if not all, cancers by stimulating the production of high levels of the same types of antibodies the body produces naturally to defend itself against cancer.

A protein, associated with the rapid replication of cancer cells regardless of cell type, is the cancer cell component that can trigger the body's immune system, according to Samuel Bogoch, MD, PhD, chairman and cofounder of Cancer Immune, Inc. Rapid replication has been known to be a virulence factor in cancer, but no responsible chemical structures have been identified to date. This protein - a 16 amino acid peptide part of the molecule malignin - has close relatives (homologues) called "Replikins," which Dr Bogoch found in all tumor viruses and most cell proteins associated with rapid replication in cancer. These Replikins, which help stimulate the production of the antimalignin antibody by the immune system, have served as the model for an investigational synthetic vaccine called CAVAX, now in preclinical development at Cancer Immune.

As a synthetic Replikin, CAVAX has been shown to produce high levels of the cancer-specific antimalignin antibody in animals. Trials to evaluate the vaccine in humans are expected to begin next year.

"Since the antimalignin antibody appears to be part of the natural immune response to cancer, a synthetic vaccine that stimulates this ...