Tissue-targeted therapy for cancer using a platform called AvidinOX

Rita De Santis directs the Department of Biotech Products at Sigma Tau SpA, Italy. Rita’s group previously published that injected oxidised Avidin, called AvidinOX, exhibits the distinctive property to form Schiff’s bases with tissue proteins thus constituting a stable receptor for biotinylated therapeutics. AvidinOX is currently under clinical investigation in Europe and USA to target radioactive biotin to inoperable tumor masses. Previous data also proved that AvidinOX can be employed for targeting biotinylated cells or biotinylated antibodies. Interestingly, a strong anti-tumor activity of AvidinOX-anchored biotinylated Cetuximab (bCet) was observed, against EGFR+ tumor cells. The talk will illustrate how to exploit this unexpected result for new cancer therapies.