Malignant cancer cell detection is a key factor in effective cancer diagnosis and research. However, current methods for malignancy identification are generally expensive and time-consuming, thereby creating an unmet need for a rapid and relatively inexpensive method for detecting human malignant cells in vivo, as well as in vitro. This technology provides a method for detecting the presence of human malignant cells in a sample of tumor cells. In addition, the technology also provides a method for obtaining an enriched population of live human malignant cells. As such, the technology provides a diagnostic for both detecting and isolating malignant cancer cells in tumors in vivo and in vitro.
This technology uses antibodies that target an essential human glycoprotein hormone found only on the surface of malignant cancer cells, which can then be detected using a variety of commonly available and utilized methods Antibodies are directed to a region present on the hormone under conditions at which the antibody forms a complex with the cells present in the sample only if the hormone is localized to the cell surface. The antibody complex formation can then be determined with a variety of commonly available and utilized methods, and the detected malignant cells can be isolated via binding of the antibody complexes to an insoluble matrix. Thus, the technology provides methods that are relatively quick, inexpensive, and adaptable to complement a wide range of molecular diagnostics, targeted cancer therapies, and basic cancer research.
Alexander Krichevsky, M.D.
Patent Issued (US 7,232,891)
Tech Ventures Reference: IR 379