Drug Conjugates Such as Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs), Immunotoxins and Immunoliposomes Challenge Daily Clinical Practice

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Wolf-Dieter Janthur¹  Nathan Cantoni¹ 

[1] Division of Hematology/Oncology, Cantonal Hospital of Aarau, CH-5001 Aarau, Switzerland;

关键词: targeted therapy;    drug conjugates;    antibody drug conjugates;    immunotoxins;    immunoliposomes;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms131216020

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Drug conjugates have been studied extensively in preclinical in vitro and in vivo models but to date only a few compounds have progressed to the clinical setting. This situation is now changing with the publication of studies demonstrating a significant impact on clinical practice and highlighting the potential of this new class of targeted therapies. This review summarizes the pharmacological and molecular background of the main drug conjugation systems, namely antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), immunotoxins and immunoliposomes. All these compounds combine the specific targeting moiety of an antibody or similar construct with the efficacy of a toxic drug. The aim of this strategy is to target tumor cells specifically while sparing normal tissue, thus resulting in high efficacy and low toxicity. Recently, several strategies have been investigated in phase I clinical trials and some have entered phase III clinical development. This review provides a detailed overview of various strategies and critically discusses the most relevant achievements. Examples of the most advanced compounds include T-DM1 and brentuximab vedotin. However, additional promising strategies such as immunotoxins and immunoliposmes are already in clinical development. In summary, targeted drug delivery by drug conjugates is a new emerging class of anti-cancer therapy that may play a major role in the future.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 by the authors; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel, Switzerland.