Recombinant Immunotoxins
A special issue of Antibodies (ISSN 2073-4468).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2012) | Viewed by 90263
Special Issue Editors
Interests: evaluation of novel formats of bispecific antibodies as potential therapeutics; antibodies and antibody-drug combinations for allergy, fibrosis and inflammatory bowel diseases; targeted nanomedicines
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: monoclonal antibodies; recombinant antibody formats; phage display; immunization strategies; EBV transformation; antibody selection strategies; humanization strategies; cell surface antigens: CD7, CD25, CD30, CD33, CD38, CD64, C123, c-kit receptor; EGF receptor; cytotoxic enzymes
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Immunotoxins comprise a field in targeted cancer therapeutics. These chimeric proteins are a form of biological guided missiles that combine a disease-specific targeting moiety with a potent effector molecule. The targeting moiety is mostly a monoclonal antibody or a recombinant antibody based fragment that confers target specificity to the immunotoxin. The effector domain is in most cases a potent protein toxin of bacterial or plant origin. Notwithstanding, immunotoxins targeted by non-antibody molecules do exist as well as immunotoxins where the effector domain is derived from a human enzyme including RNAses, proteases or kinases. Following binding to the target cells, the immunotoxin undergoes internalization, intracellular processing and trafficking and eventually causes cell death by either catalytically inhibiting a vital process and/or by activating a cell-death cascade. Over the 25 some years of their evolution, immunotoxins have been engineered to better fit to their purpose, improving on specificity and reducing undesirable properties such as untoward toxicities and immunogenicity. Many immunotoxins have undergone clinical evaluation, some showing promise and progressing to advanced clinical trials. This special issue of “Antibodies” will review recent developments as reported by experts in this exciting field. Covered topics will include target selection, toxin selection, targeting moiety selection and engineering, disease models and preclinical studies, clinical studies as well as adverse effects.
Prof. Dr. Itai Benhar
Prof. Dr. Dr. Stefan Barth
Guest Editors
Keywords
- pseudomonas exotoxin
- diphtheria toxin
- ricin
- Saporin
- other RIPs
- human enzymes
- RNAses
- immunotoxin targets
- IgGs
- antibody fragments
- non-antibody-based disease models and preclinical studies
- clinical studies
- adverse effects