Scientists in Copenhagen have developed a new tool for diagnosing and monitoring a wide variety of cancers, which uses a malaria protein known rVAR2 to grab hold of and remove circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from blood samples. The researchers, headed by Mette Ø. Agerbæk, Ph.D., and Ali Salanti, Ph.D., at the University of Copenhagen’s department of immunology and microbiology, found that using the bead-bound malaria protein as a CTC capture method was highly specific for cancer cells and could also be used to isolate CTCs from a much broader range of cancers than existing, antibody-based approaches that target cancer cell surface protein markers such as epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM). The team suggests that the CTC capture technology could be developed into a diagnostic or screening tool for diagnosing cancer early in clinical settings. And by allowing scientists to derive new insights into the cellular characteristics of ...
Original Article: Circulating Tumor Cells Get "Sucked Up" By Malaria Protein