Immunotoxins against Cancers: A Promising Prospect?

Dear Colleagues,

Recombinant immunotoxins, composed of a toxin site and an antigen binding, are currently being used to target various cancer cells. This therapeutic modality is efficacious in hematological malignancies, while in solid tumors, various studies have shown the effectiveness of immunotoxins for inhibiting carcinogenesis and angiogenesis. Therapies with monoclonal antibodies either per se or in conjugation with toxins have shown remarkable efficacy and safety in the treatment of several tumors. In this regard, targeted chemotherapy utilizing antibody–drug conjugates have demonstrated effective therapeutic results for multiple types of cancer. For example, a conjugate of trastuzumab–emtansine (T–DM1, commercial name Kadcyla), is a well-known antibody–drug conjugate used to treat HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. Bacterial toxins can also be used as anti-carcinogenic molecules either alone or in combination with chemotherapeutics. Similarly, toxin genes can induce selective cell death by damaging the vital structures of the transformed cells. Thus, toxin gene delivery might be a promising tool in cancer therapy.

Immunotoxins deliver cancer-specific receptors to mediate the elimination of tumors through immune cells, and increase the cytotoxicity against the target cells by the intrinsic toxin activity. Immunotherapeutic modalities utilizing T lymphocytes expressing a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) target different tumors. This CAR-T cell therapy represents a vital breakthrough in personalized medicine by utilizing the immune cells to eliminate neoplasms. A similar strategy was established using CAR-natural killer cells (CAR-NK), which uses genetic modification to enable immune cells to target tumor-specific tissue antigens. In certain studies, granules containing cytolytic enzymes, such as granzyme B, have been coupled with viral/microbial products, for the treatment of prostate cancer cells. Additionally, monoclonal antibodies against immune checkpoint molecules, such as programmed cell death (PD) or programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), demonstrate intriguing efficacy against cancer, alone or in combination with immunotoxins or chemotherapeutic agents.

In this issue we encourage the submission of manuscripts discussing the effects of immunotoxins in the treatment of various cancers. These include but are not limited to:

• Immunotoxins as therapeutic modalities for cancer
• Monoclonal antibodies against immune checkpoints coupled with immunotoxins
• Chemotherapeutic drugs in combination with immunotoxins
• Novel methods of delivering immunotoxins in experimental animals or in clinical trials
• CAR-T or CAR-NK used in cancer therapy
• Immunotoxins targeting inflammasomes or the pyroptosis process
• Novel methods of conjugating antibodies or drugs to toxins

Prof. Dr. Azzam A. Maghazachi
Prof. Dr. Iman M. Talaat 
Dr. Noha M. Elemam
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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 double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxins 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 2700 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.

• immunotoxins
• cancer
• antibodies
• chemotherapy
• checkpoints
• CAR-T
• CAR-NK
• pyroptosis
• drug delivery