There are a lot of anti-breast cancer therapies now using monoclonal antibodies. In particular, the Epidermal Growth factor family of receptors such as Her2, Her4 and EGFR.
What are these things anyway?
They are classified as receptor tyrosine kinases. Epidermal growth factor, (a soluble peptide secreted from salivary glands, that tells cells to grow) is the ligand for the EGFR. Tyrosine kinases transfer a phosphate molecule to the amino acid tyrosine (Y). This results in 2 major changes in the protein that receives the phosphate group. 1) the protein now has a negative charge attached which 2) causes a conformational change in the structure of the protein.
New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq companies that have monoclonal antibodies and/or pharmacological inhibitors to the EGFR family are Genentech (DNA), Amgen (AMGN), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and AstraZeneca (AZN).
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