Guess where
Do you remember our old friend PD-1? Probably not; I last wrote about it on June 6th
of last year. It has the catchy name
“Programmed Death Receptor 1”, and it has something important to do with the
immune system. Anyway, it is back in the
news, big-time. Both the Wall Street Journal and the NY Times have stories featuring this
important little bio- molecule. Several
drugs based on PD-1 are newly on the market, or soon will be. They are aimed principally at advanced
melanoma, but by implication this type of therapy may apply to other forms of
cancer. However, the two articles are more
concerned with how much a course of treatment will cost (astronomical) than how
it works. Here is what I guess is going
on: 1) these drugs feature something
called a “monoclonal antibody”, which is designed to glom onto receptors on
various kinds of guardian cells of the immune system; 2) This prevents PD-1
from killing off these friendly cells, which; 3) attack the cancer and kill it
dead! I may be all wet here, but two
things are certain: PD-1 is a hot commodity in the pharma world, and it costs a
lot to use. This is another example of a
very intractable problem confronting society: we can (potentially) cure many
diseases, including some forms of cancer, but can we afford it?
Oh, by the way…. I
remember puzzling somewhere about why so many new drugs end with “mab”. Now, finally, I know – mab stands for
monoclonal antibody, as any fool should have been able to guess, (not)
Here are the links: http://online.wsj.com/articles/powerful-new-cancer-drugs-offer-hopeat-steep-cost-1409788867?KEYWORDS=PD-1
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