Leukaemia Busters funded scientists working in both Italy and the UK under the coordination and management of the charity’s Scientific Directors Office are designing and producing the next generation of antibody-based drugs for the treatment of leukaemia patients. These will be easier and cheaper to manufacture and safer to use in patients owing to their consistent composition.
The Recombinant Immunotoxin Collaborative Group have been working together on this project since 2004 and have so far succeeded in producing three prototypical molecules in which the toxin saporin is genetically fused to a portion of an antibody molecule termed the scFv that targets the toxin to B-cell leukaemia or lymphoma cells. More molecules of this type designed for different types of leukaemia are currently being engineered. These genetically engineered molecules are made by joining together appropriate pieces of DNA coding for the various parts of the molecule that can then be expressed in yeast. This simplifies their manufacture and thus reduces their cost for clinical trial work.
Currently the RICG is comprised of scientists working in Southampton, Milan, Verona and L’Aquila and together they expect to produce their first recombinant immunotoxin ready for use in human patients by sometime in 2010/11.