How is a targeted toxin able to inhibit a cellular process when an antagonist did not?
An antagonist is used to block a receptor on a cell to keep it from binding a target molecule and activating the cell.
For example, a substance P antagonist binds to the substance P (NK-1) receptor. The hypothesis was that if the antagonist binds to the receptor, substance P can’t bind and the cell won’t be activated.
The reality is that there are other receptors besides the substance P receptor on that cell. If any of these other receptors bind to their target molecules, then the cell will still be activated.
The Targeted Toxins with our targeting technology can use any of these cell surface receptors to target and completely eliminate the entire cell. Since there are no receptors left to bind; no cell left to be activated.
