A TWO-pronged assault on diseases such as cancer and arthritis could soon be delivered by a single drug, thanks to a breakthrough in antibody engineering.
Antibodies are proteins that bind to specific targets, such as a virus. Their specificity means they have great promise for treating a wide range of diseases. Rheumatoid arthritis, for instance, can now be treated with antibodies that bind to and neutralise tumour necrosis factor (TNF), a signalling molecule that aggravates inflammation.
But these antibodies work in only half of patients, says Ian Tomlinson, chief scientific officer of the drug company Domantis in Cambridge, UK, because…
