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Biomedicines
Special Issues
Immunoconjugates
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Immunoconjugates

A special issue of Biomedicines (ISSN 2227-9059).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2017) | Viewed by 18940

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Letizia Polito

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Guest Editor
Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine-DIMES, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Via San Giacomo 14, 40126 Bologna, Italy
Interests: cancer therapy; drug delivery; immunoconjugates; immune targeting; plant toxins
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The immunoconjugate concept is inspired by Paul Ehrlich’s magic bullet idea, and consists in the linking of a pharmacologically-active molecule to a carrier for selective delivery to target cells. Immunoconjugates could be used to eliminate unwanted cells that are responsible for pathological conditions, but are primarily applied in the field of experimental cancer therapy. The response rates observed in clinical trials have often been greater than those reported for conventional antiblastic drugs, and new and exciting opportunities for controlled drug delivery and release have been developed. Antibodies are the most utilized carriers due to their stability in blood and avidity and affinity for their target antigen. As toxic moiety, different active substances have been used, such as drugs, human enzymes, and toxins (both bacterial and plant).

In this Special Issue, I am aiming to focus on recent developments in the chemistry, pharmacology and medical implications of antibody-based immunoconjugates for experimental therapy of cancer and other diseases. I, therefore, take pleasure in inviting colleagues to contribute with their valuable work to this Special Issue in Biomedicines.

Dr. Letizia Polito
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biomedicines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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10 pages, 885 KiB  
Review
Immunoconjugates for Osteosarcoma Therapy: Preclinical Experiences and Future Perspectives
by Daniele Mercatelli, Massimo Bortolotti, Alberto Bazzocchi, Andrea Bolognesi and Letizia Polito
Biomedicines 2018, 6(1), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines6010019 - 10 Feb 2018
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 5198
Abstract
Osteosarcoma (OS) is an aggressive osteoid-producing tumor of mesenchymal origin, which represents the most common primary bone malignancy. It is characterized by a complex and frequently uncertain etiology. The current standard care for high-grade OS treatment is neoadjuvant chemotherapy, followed by surgery and [...] Read more.
Osteosarcoma (OS) is an aggressive osteoid-producing tumor of mesenchymal origin, which represents the most common primary bone malignancy. It is characterized by a complex and frequently uncertain etiology. The current standard care for high-grade OS treatment is neoadjuvant chemotherapy, followed by surgery and post-operative chemotherapy. In order to ameliorate survival rates of patients, new therapeutic approaches have been evaluated, mainly immunotherapy with antibody-drug conjugates or immunoconjugates. These molecules consist of a carrier (frequently an antibody) joined by a linker to a toxic moiety (drug, radionuclide, or toxin). Although several clinical trials with immunoconjugates have been conducted, mainly in hematological tumors, their potential as therapeutic agents is relatively under-explored in many types of cancer. In this review, we report the immunoconjugates directed against OS surface antigens, considering the in vitro and in vivo studies. To date, several attempts have been made in preclinical settings, reporting encouraging results and demonstrating the validity of the idea. The clinical experience with glembatumumab vedotin may provide new insights into the real efficacy of antibody-drug conjugates for OS therapy, possibly giving more information about patient selection. Moreover, new opportunities could arise from the ongoing clinical trials in OS patients with unconjugated antibodies that could represent future candidates as carrier moieties of immunoconjugates. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Immunoconjugates)
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Review
Site-Specific Antibody Conjugation for ADC and Beyond
by Qun Zhou
Biomedicines 2017, 5(4), 64; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines5040064 - 09 Nov 2017
Cited by 75 | Viewed by 12847
Abstract
Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) have become a promising class of antitumor agents with four conjugates being approved by regulatory agencies for treating cancer patients. To improve the conventional conjugations that are currently applied to generate these heterogeneous products, various site-specific approaches have been developed. [...] Read more.
Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) have become a promising class of antitumor agents with four conjugates being approved by regulatory agencies for treating cancer patients. To improve the conventional conjugations that are currently applied to generate these heterogeneous products, various site-specific approaches have been developed. These methods couple cytotoxins or chemotherapeutic drugs to specifically defined sites in antibody molecules including cysteine, glutamine, unnatural amino acids, short peptide tags, and glycans. The ADCs produced showed high homogeneity, increased therapeutic index, and strong antitumor activities in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, there are recent trends in using these next generation technologies beyond the cytotoxin-conjugated ADC. These site-specific conjugations have been applied for the generation of many different immunoconjugates including bispecific Fab or small molecule–antibody conjugates, immunosuppressive antibodies, and antibody–antibiotic conjugates. Thus, it is likely that additional technologies and related site-specific conjugates will emerge in the near future, with various chemicals or small molecular weight proteins in addition to cytotoxin for better treatment of many challenging diseases. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Immunoconjugates)
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