Prostate, breast and other cancer patients may be offered a new, stauncher targeted drug delivery system to treat their diseases in the next decade. Using atomic force microscopy and computer simulations, researchers from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the UC Davis Cancer Center have unveiled a new and reliable technique to characterize the binding interaction of multivalent molecules designed for targeted drug delivery in cancer treatment. The Livermore team used atomic force microscopy (AFM) to measure the binding forces between several single-chain antibody fragments and Mucin1 peptide. Mucin1 is commonly found in large quantities in a variety of epithelial cells in the human body, and one of its specific forms is a characteristic marker for prostate, breast, colon, lung, gastric and pancreatic cancers. Binding between Mucin1 and anti-bodies recognizing the marker is critical to targeted drug delivery for cancer patients.
