A new cancer vaccine engineered specifically for the genetic makeup of GCC patients offers hope to thousands of people battling the disease in the region, a report said.

The “immunotherapy” treatment has been developed by Arabian Gulf University (AGU) researchers Bahraini Dr Dana Naeem Ashoor and Kuwaiti Dr Maryam Hamad Marzouq, reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

However, they need anywhere between BD50 million ($132 million) and BD200m to conduct a series of clinical trials before it can be marketed to patients in the Gulf.

The researchers first embarked on the project in 2009 as part of their PhD in molecular medicine from the university’s Al Jawhara Centre for Molecular Medicine and Inherited Disorders, with the aim of creating a specially designed treatment for cancer patients in the GCC.

The 38-year-olds developed antibodies that target cancer cells of specific gene types and destroy them by binding them together with immune cells.

Their success was announced last week, but project supervisor Professor Dr Mohammed Dahmani Fathallah said the treatment required significant funding to stand any chance of making it past the initial phase.

“Research usually stops at the initial phase and never turns into an actual product that can benefit people due to a lack of support,” said biotechnology professor Dr Fathallah, who is also College of Graduate Studies dean at AGU.

“The treatment needs between BD50 million to BD200 million to be produced on an industrial scale.

“When money is provided we can start our clinical trials, which includes three phases with the number of patients undergoing the test gradually increasing in each phase.

“We first test it on 40 to 50 people to make sure it is not toxic, which is essential even if we know that an antibody is a natural component of the body.

“The second phase, which is the most critical and very costly, will include testing it on a few hundred to prove its efficiency – and then later take the project to the third phase to test it on a larger scale.”

Collaboration

Once clinical trials have been conducted successfully and the data has been supplied to Bahraini health authorities, the researchers then have to apply for a licence to produce the drug commercially.

A collaboration between the university and a pharmaceutical company is then needed to produce the drug, with each course of treatment likely ranging from a few weeks to a few months.

Dr Fathallah said treatments could be expensive, but added the cost would be lower if the university agreed to share the drug with pharmaceutical companies at a low price.

“A pharmaceutical industry is usually needed to take it to an industrial scale,” added Dr Fathallah.

“It has to pay a huge amount of money to get the licence for the product, which is patented by someone else, and therefore the drug can be sold for high costs.

“However, because all the work will be done by the university and for the sake of helping patients, we won’t ask for a lot of money from pharmaceutical industries to offer them the licence.

“In some countries the government sponsors an antibody, which doesn’t leave them with losses because they get money in return when the drug is sold.”

With help from AGU researcher Raed Qadoora, Dr Marzouq was able to study tumour samples of GCC patients suffering from six different types of cancer to identify the most common mutations. She used this data to create monoclonal antibodies that would specifically target cancer cells.

The study also led to the discovery of new genetic mutations, which have been registered by the National Centre for Biotechnology Information.

Dr Ashoor’s role was to design the antibody in a way that enabled one of its ends to bind with a cancer cell and bring it into contact with an immune cell, destroying the tumour in the process.

She told the GDN that they focused on this type of treatment because it has fewer side effects for patients compared to the traditional chemotherapy and radiation.

“We chose this cancer treatment because it has been showing promising results worldwide,” said Dr Ashoor, who is an AGU biotechnology specialist. It has less side effects that chemotherapy and radiation, which can kill tumour cells but at the same time kill other cells and this is why patients lose their hair and feel so sick during their therapy.

“We therefore aim to spread this type of therapy in the Gulf and combat the increasing number of patients.

“Maybe one day it (cancer) won’t be the highest cause of death in the region.”

AGU molecular and cellular biology assistant professor Dr Sonia Bourguiba-Hachemi was also involved in supervising the research, which resulted in developing three different monoclonal antibodies specific for Gulf patients. – TradeArabia News Service