They tested the resulting bispecific antibody in human cell lines from patients with lung and pancreatic cancer, demonstrating that it could destroy tumor cells with low levels of mutated RAS, while leaving cells with normal RAS alone.
So they designed bispecific antibodies to target either of two specific regions that are likely to be present on malignant T cells, TRBV5-5 or TRBV12.
In cell lines from patients and mouse models of leukemia and lymphoma, the bispecific antibodies targeted and killed the cancer-driving T cells without affecting healthy T cells, and the cancer regressed, the researchers reported in Science Translational Medicine.