Kinda an overly-optimistic press release here, but look forward to this sort of therapy becoming a reality. If I’m grasping it correctly, it uses the same sort of technology as PSMA to target PC cells with radiological agents.
“Pluvicto is a theranostic treatment — an approach that uses specially designed molecules to first find and bind to specific biomarkers on cancer cells, wherever they might be, and then enter the tumour cell. Radioisotopes attached to the molecules then deliver radiation directly into the cancer cells, damaging the DNA inside and killing them.”
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Jpburns
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I hate these overly optimistic reports with no technical details. Actinium is an alpha emitter so has higher activity but shorter reach. The idea is that higher doses of isotope can be delivered more precisely. However the big problem with current (don't know about this one because they give few details) Actinium treatment is the limited specificity of the ligand. It attaches to saliva glands and can permanently damage them. It looks like this new treatment uses a different ligand FL-020 this is discussed in another article by the manufacturer and it sort of suggests that it might be more psma specific than other ligands but this article is also vague.
225Ac-FL-020 is a novel PSMA-targeting radionuclide drug conjugate (RDC) with superior in vivo anti-tumor activity
F. Liu1, J. Zhang1, J. Yang1, K. T. Thrane2, M. W. Hallund2, R. V. Grønlund2, N. C. L. Wong1;
But don’t salivary glands express PSMA also? i.e. being more PSMA-specific wouldn’t help us here with off-target effects, am I thinking straight? Maybe that’s not what you’re saying.
225Ac-FL-020 … aims to improve drug uptake in tumors while ensuring fast systemic clearance
…225Ac-FL-020 represents a significant advancement
…quickly eliminated by the body, reducing potential toxicity…
So that implies the fast systemic clearance is what reduces toxicity. That, uh, seems reasonable. A bit more useful is this (which looks like the same paper as your quote):
…where (my own paraphrase) off-target screening indicates high selectivity, high tumor uptake, ”superior” anti-tumor activity compared to Ac-PSMA-617, and rapid systemic clearance.
So far, of course, only in mice. I guess Phase 1 will give some insight about humans.
I think both are correct; it looks like a different ligand (FL-020 vs e.g. 617), and maybe that’s why there’s faster clearance, which is maybe why less off-target effects,
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