DSG2 antibody platform
DSG2 plays a significant role in tumorigenesis, and its protein overexpression has been observed in epithelial cancer tissues, including ovarian cancer, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, head and neck cancer, pancreatic cancer, and esophageal cancer. Notably, the overexpression of DSG2 protein is positively correlated with the progression of ovarian cancer and is also associated with the survival period of ovarian cancer patients.
The correlation between DSG2 expression levels and ovarian cancer.
In 2021, our company, in collaboration with a research team from the Academia Sinica, published in the PNAS journal that the expression level of DSG2 dynamically changes with oxygen concentrations in the cellular microenvironment. This finding underscores the importance of DSG2 in the metastatic stages of breast cancer and suggests its potential applications in clinical diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. (Academia Sinica Genome Research Center_ DSG2 Controls Breast Cancer Metastasis）
In the same PNAS research study, it was also confirmed that our company's DSG2 monoclonal antibody can detect circulating tumor cells in the blood. This will be utilized as a biomarker for cancer diagnosis, using DSG2 levels in tumor cells and blood to aid in clinical staging of cancer. This will help physicians choose the optimal treatment plans, and it can also be used to track the expression of DSG2 in patients to assess the effectiveness of the treatment methods.
AS002 can be applied for the detection of circulating tumor cells and the preparation of antibody-drug conjugates.
AS002 is the market's first antibody targeting DSG2. It can not only be used for detecting cancer cells in the blood but also has the potential to be developed into antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) targeting the DSG2. ADCs can be used for the treatment of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and hematologic malignancies and may also serve to inhibit the metastasis of cancer cells in pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, liver cancer, colorectal cancer, and esophageal cancer, among others.
In addition to its applications in cancer diagnosis and the development of ADCs, the DSG2 antibody platform will be evaluated for its potential use in bispecific antibodies (bsAbs) and immune cell therapy in the future.