AMATUXIMAB

Amatuximab from Morphotek



Amatuximab from Morphotek

Introduction

For the patients of malevolent pleural mesothelioma, Amatuximab is a brand new option for treatment. The malignant pleural mesothelioma is a cancer with virulent asbestos-linkage. Amatuximab is a product developed by the Morphotek Inc. the dug as been declared as an orphan drug by the governmental agency, FDA. Amatuximab is still going theorugh researches and it, till now, declared as an anti cancer drug. There is an act called the Orphan drug act. According to this act, FDA can declare any drug as an orphan drug, if the targeted population for the treatment with this drug is lesser than 200,000. The reason behind this strategy is that if a disease infect lesser than 00,000 individuals, the disease is termed as a rare illness.

Mesothelioma is one of the rarest of rare diseases, claiming the lives of about 2,500 Americans annually. Without the Orphan Drug Act, there is less incentive for a company like Morphotek to make an effort in the development of medications against the treatment of a rare disease similar to mesothelioma. (Hequan & Yanmei, 2009).

The treatment of Mesothelioma is not an easy task. The disease can take around forty years to develop compleeky, however, the unfortunate part is , that it shows limited signs and symptoms initially  . This is, perhaps the reasons that most of the patients are unaware that they are infected with mesothelioma. The only time they realize is whn the condition is on its later stages and treatment becomes less effectual.

The researches have proved that the orphan drugs are especially critical for mesothelioma because there are so few viable treatment options. Even with chemotherapy, surgery and/or radiotherapy, the prognosis for most patients is still poor. Studies on gene therapy and immunotherapy (like Amatuximab) suggest these approaches may hold more promise for mesothelioma than conventional treatments (Gauvrit & Brandler, 2008).

Discussion

Amatuximab

The Chimeric cound Amatuximab is an IgG1 antibody, which is still under investigation. It is developed by the Morphotek incorporation. In cancers, there is an overexpression of a glycoprotein called mesothelin. This also incorporated the pleural mesothelima. Amatuximab acts by targeting this overexpression by attacking the glycoprotein, hence working as an agent in the treatment of cancer. The molecular formula of the antibody is 6394H9870N1694O2024S46, while the molecular weight is 144.33 kDa (peptide).

Mesothelin has a connection with cell bonding which allows a tumor to take hold in a particular spot and to 'seed' new tumors in other parts of the body. In a press release announcing Amatuximab's new orphan drug status, Morphotek noted, “Researchers at the National cancer Institute (NCI) and Johns Hopkins University have independently validated mesothelin as a potential target of immune-based therapies.” (Kreitman & Hassan, 2009)

According to the National Cancer Institute, Amatuximab has the ability to bind to the mesothelin on the surface of cancer cells and trigger an immune response against the mesothelin-expressing tumor cells. Orphan drug status will make it possible for Morphotek to make Amatuximab available to mesothelioma patients ...