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Affibody AB provides novel molecular imaging agents for visualizing HER2-expressing cancer


WEBWIRE

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, May 5, 2006 - Affibody AB today announced that Cancer Research, the official publication of American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), has published an article by Affibody and collaborators on the development and evaluation of a new targeting molecule that can be used for visualization of HER2-expressing cancers.

The article, entitled “Tumor Imaging Using a Picomolar Affinity HER2 Binding Affibody® Molecule”, is authored by A. Orlova and co-workers and appeared in print form of the April 15th issue of Cancer Research (Volume 66, pages 4339-4348). The authors reported on the development of a HER2-specific Affibody® molecule having an extremely high affinity (22 picomolar). The advantage of this high affinity for the oncogene product HER2 was shown in tumor targeting experiments and the utility of the drug for imaging purposes was demonstrated using gamma camera detection of HER2-expressing xenografted tumors within hours after injection.

Summarizing the results, Dr. Fredrik Nilsson, project manager and corresponding author said: “We have succeeded in engineering extremely high affinity into a small molecule. In molecular imaging, small size is the key to success, as it allows for rapid kinetics and high contrast imaging within hours after injection”.

Dr. Lars Abrahmsén, Chief Scientific Officer at Affibody, commented: “Affibody® molecules are perfectly suited for imaging agents due to their very small size combined with high specificity for their target. This work validates our generic lead optimization process and unequivocally proves that it is possible to engineer very high affinities into Affibody® molecules. Based on these achievements it is now possible to develop Affibody® ligands for clinical use in molecular imaging and targeted therapeutics.”



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