CubaPLUS Magazine

Dr. Gertrudis Rojas Dorantes, a scientist at the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM) in Cuba, and Dr. Maren Schubert, group leader of the Biotechnology and Medical Biotechnology departments at the Technical University of Braunschweig (TUBS) in Germany, are working on a new form of treatment that could be more effective for the treatment of gliomas, advanced esophageal cancer and squamous cell carcinomas, among other types of cancer.

A recent article published by the digital magazine of the high-level studies center adds that the Cuban specialist is visiting the German institution for the sixth time with the support of the Humboldt Foundation and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The international team of researchers has already succeeded in improving the application of the nimotuzumab antibody in these diseases, a drug that is used to treat various types of cancer in China and Cuba with good results, for example.

The aim of this work, explains the specialist publication, is to improve the treatment of different types of cancer, modifying the immune response with the help of stimulants specific to the body. However, it warns, in order to produce them efficiently and, in particular, to adapt their properties to achieve only the desired effects without secondary effects, it is necessary to optimize them using biotechnological methods.

For this reason, the phage visualization methods developed by professors Stefan Dübel and Michael Hust, heads of the departments of Biotechnology and Medical Biotechnology at the aforementioned German center, have been used successfully. The latest success of the research team, it continues, is the development of a variant of interleukin-2 that has been considerably improved in terms of production yield, resistance to aggregation and stability, as well as in regards to its in vivo potentiation of immune effector reactions and its anti-tumor effect.

According to the publication, the project received the Research Award of the Cuban Academy of Sciences last year, although more importantly, the molecules developed jointly could allow for better cancer treatment in the future.