A team of Israeli scientists claim they will likely develop a cure for cancer in the next year, The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday.
The new treatment is being developed by Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies under the leadership of CEO Dr. Ilan Morad, according to the report.
“We believe we will offer in a year’s time a complete cure for cancer,” said Dan Aridor, chairman of the company’s board. “Our cancer cure will be effective from day one, will last a duration of a few weeks and will have no or minimal side-effects at a much lower cost than most other treatments on the market.”
The treatment, called MuTaTo, will use a combination of cancer-targeting peptides and a toxin that will specifically kill cancer cells.
The potentially game-changing anti-cancer drug is based on SoAP technology, which belongs to the phage display group of technologies. It involves the introduction of DNA coding for a protein, such as an antibody, into a bacteriophage – a virus that infects bacteria. That protein is then displayed on the surface of the phage. Researchers can use these protein-displaying phages to screen for interactions with other proteins, DNA sequences and small molecules.
In 2018, a team of scientists won the Nobel Prize for their work on phage display in the directed evolution of new proteins – in particular, for the production of antibody therapeutics.
AEBi is doing something similar but with peptides, compounds of two or more amino acids linked in a chain. According to Morad, peptides have several advantages over antibodies, including that they are smaller, cheaper, and easier to produce and regulate.
The treatment will eventually be personalized and a specific cocktail of the drugs will be given to patients based on their type of cancer.
