Video imaging used to identify effectiveness of rituximab on cancer

Video microscopy has been used to identify why a cancer treatment is so effective.

High quality video imaging has been used to uncover why the drug rituximab is so effective at killing B cell malignancies, such as lymphoma and leukaemia.
 
The study, from the Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research in the UK, explained how video footage enabled the team to see how the drug worked.
 
Rituximab tended to stick to one side of the cancer cell, drawing a cluster of protein molecules to that side.
 
When the natural killer cells latched onto the rituximab cap in the B cell, it had an 80 per cent success rate at killing the cell, compared to 40 per cent when the B cell did not have a cluster of protein molecules on one side.
 
"It was only possible for us to unravel the mystery of why this drug was so effective, though the use of video microscopy," commented Professor Daniel Davis.
 
He added that this ability to polarise a cell by moving proteins within it should be considered when new antibodies are being tested as potential treatments for cancer cells.
 
The results have been published online by the journal Blood.