Advisory Committee Chair
Margaret X Liu
Advisory Committee Members
Vithal Ghanta
Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
2019
Degree Name by School
Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering (MSBME) School of Engineering
Abstract
Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are malignancies that arise from genetic or sporadic abnormalities in the endocrine system. These cancers can be found in various organ systems but are most frequently expressed in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and pancreas. The incidence rate of NETs has been steadily increasing in the past few decades, exhibiting a 6.4-fold increase from 1973 to 2012. Despite this observation, these cancers are still considered rare and as such there is a lack of appropriate treatments addressing them. Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that specifically bind to type 2 somatostatin receptor (SSTR2), a protein commonly overexpressed in NETs, could be used to address this issue. SSTR2 has many functions pertaining to cell cycle modulation including induction of apoptosis and inhibition of cell proliferation. This means that SSTR2 specific mAbs can not only specifically target NETs, but also produce anti-oncogenic effects to impede tumor progression. The research outlined here intends to evaluate the efficacy of a current commercially available anti-SSTR2 mAb for NET therapy and propose a novel anti-SSTR2 mAb based therapy that has been shown to have increased specific targeting capacity and anti-oncogenic effects.
Recommended Citation
Flanigan, Daniel, "Evaluation of a Novel Monoclonal Antibody Based Therapy for Neuroendocrine Tumors" (2019). All ETDs from UAB. 1653.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/1653