New biomarkers found for diagnosis and treatment of triple-negative breast cancer

COGNANO, Inc. (Kyoto, Japan) and associates announced the discovery of a panel of antibodies specific for triple-negative Breast Cancer (TNBC). Breast cancer was the second leading cause of death for American women in 2022. To date, the three markers (Her2, ER and PgR) have been used for diagnosis that has increased life expectancy for many patients. However, patients with low expressions of these markers are diagnosed with TNBC and have the worst prognosis. The authors obtained a panel of antibodies indicating TNBC cancer cells through a computational approach using the genetic database from immunized alpacas. The results also signify the discovery of multiple new target molecules suitable for TNBC treatment. The authors mention COGNANO’s algorithm can discover therapeutic targets to solve any malignancies defined as unmet medical needs.

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The research was published on the bioRxiv preprint server on February 23, 2023.

Title: Statistical mining of triple-negative breast cancer-specific nanobodies among huge libraries from immunized alpacas.

Authors: Ryota Maeda, Hiroyuki Yamazaki, Ryoga Kobayashi, Seishiro Yamamoto, Kazuki Kasai, Akihiro Imura* (*Correspondence author)

DOI: 10.1101/2023.02.23.529685

URL: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.23.529685v1

1. Background
   
   Over the past 40 years, efforts have yielded breakthrough drug discovery targets such as Her2, EGFR, PD1-L, and OX40. Currently, “precision medicine” that delivers drugs to target molecules supported by engineering such as “ADC: antibody-drug conjugate” and “CAR-T” is mainstream. On the other hand, there remain some types of cancer, such as pancreatic…