Monoclonal Antibody Drugs: How Do They Work?
Cancer treatment is being revolutionized by a miracle lab-grown drug known as monoclonal antibodies. These antibodies can boost the immune system’s cancer-fighting efforts and have endless potential medical applications that could soon be used to fight other dangerous diseases (such as Covid-19). If you want to understand how monoclonal antibodies are used to fight cancer, here is a quick primer:
A 9-Step Primer to Understanding How Monoclonal Antibody Drugs Actually Work:
1. They Deliver Radiation Treatment
Because monoclonal antibodies can actively connect with cancer cells much more efficiently than the human immune system, they can be used as a delivery method for other important treatments. Radiation treatment is a massive aspect of cancer treatment, and monoclonal antibody-based drugs have made the ability for doctors to effectively deliver radiation treatment easier than ever before.
2. They Prevent Blood Vessel Growth
Cancer cells rely on continuous growth to survive within the human body. Many new monoclonal antibody-based drugs now use targeted attacks to prevent and slow down the growth of blood vessels within cancer cells. This also helps to directly interfere with the protein production that happens within cancer cells. Few other uses of monoclonal antibodies have been as consistently successful.
3. They Deliver Chemotherapy Treatment
Similar to what we discussed above related to radiation treatment, monoclonal antibody-based drugs are now being designed to deliver life-saving chemotherapy treatment. This treatment can be delivered directly to the cancer cells, allowing the chemotherapy process to largely avoid healthy cells. This has been a massive leap forward in making chemotherapy a safer option for cancer patients in 2022
4. They Block Cell Growth
Blocking connections between cell growth and proteins that promote cell growth is a crucial use of monoclonal antibody-based drugs. This process has been considered for other disease treatments as well, and the sheer versatility associated with the capabilities of monoclonal antibodies is one of the miracles of modern scientific research. With any luck, it can continue to revolutionize modern medical practices.
5. They Flag Cancer Cells
The process of flagging cancer cells is critical to your body’s ability to fight back against rapidly expanding cancer cells. When your immune system is damaged by cancer, it becomes much harder for the immune system to accurately determine what cells are cancerous and which are not (which can cause massive complications). That being said, monoclonal antibodies can successfully target cancer cells, and flag them. This allows the immune system to correct its cancer-fighting efforts.
6. They Directly Attack Cancer Cells
After flagging cancer cells, the monoclonal antibodies can quickly begin attacking the cancer cells. This happens not only through the methods we’ve already discussed but through many other highly specific and high-tech ways as well. Doctors have to perform heavy research and monitoring tasks to ensure monoclonal antibodies are doing their jobs effectively when using this method of treatment on cancer patients.
7. They Bind to Cancer and Immune Cells
Several monoclonal antibody-based drugs combine two different types of monoclonal antibodies to effectively bind themselves to highly specific immune system and cancer cells. The versatility of this approach allows for more specified and specialized cancer treatment using monoclonal antibody-based drugs.
8. They Block Immune System Inhibitors
The immune system prevents your body from going into overdrive and wearing itself out, by making proteins that help accurately and efficiently direct your immune system cells. Monoclonal antibodies can interfere, and intervene, in this critical bodily process. This allows the cancer cells to become less inhibited in how they confront and destroy cancer cells throughout the body.
9. They Trigger Cell-Membrane Destruction
To effectively treat cancer, it’s sometimes necessary for the membrane of cancerous cells to be fully destroyed. Thankfully, effective monoclonal antibody treatments can target this specific part of the cell, and destroy the full outer membrane wall over time. This is one of the more rarely used ways that monoclonal antibody-based drugs are used to fight back against cancer growth in the body, however.
Here’s to a Cancer-Free Future
The further we dive into monoclonal antibodies and other cancer-related research, the closer we get to a cancer-free future. With each passing year, more and more work is done to ensure cancer patients have as many tools as possible to fight against this tragic and devastating disease. Patience is important when it comes to any type of major medical treatment, however, so being prepared to invest time and money into cancer treatment is important for every patient that is looking to recover.
