Antibody-cytokine Fusion Proteins: Production, Functionality and Application Prospects in Oncology

In medicine cytokines play an important role as the immune response modulators. However, biologically active drug application in high doses in oncology is followed by a number of unfavorable side effects resulting in treatment cessation. Target therapy enables to increase the efficiency of cytokine usage, and therefore, reduce the drug doses.

The achievements in genetic engineering and biotechnology led to a growing number of new antibody-cytokine fusion proteins. Such hybrids can have the properties of all components and acquire advantages compared to proteins alone. For example, monoclonal antibodies specific to a particular tumor antigen being fused with cytokines (MAb–C) provide accumulation of cytokines in tumor microenvironment, increase antitumor effect of antibodies and enhancement of the immune response against a tumor. MAb–C with various specificity against a number of tumors have been created in the last twenty years. It was shown on animal models that such fusion proteins being accumulated around a tumor are capable to cause the considerable antitumor response, which in some cases results in complete tumor elimination. The present review describes data on existing models of antibody-cytokine fusion proteins, their technology and application prospects in oncology.

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Kosobokova E.N., Kosorukov V.S., Baryshnikov A.Yu. Antibody-cytokine Fusion Proteins: Production, Functionality and Application Prospects in Oncology. Sovremennye tehnologii v medicine 2013; 5(4): 102