An antibody that becomes active only when it encounters tumours could provide a path to safer cancer drugs. Although gentler than other cancer drugs, side effects from antibodies still limit the dosage that patients can receive. To reduce toxicity, Henry Lowman of CytomX, a biotechnology firm in South San Francisco, California, and his colleagues designed a covert antibody - a protein-based molecule that cannot bind to its target until it faces protein-cleaving enzymes that are often abundant near tumours.
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