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Recombinant Antibodies as Therapeutic Agents

Pathways for Modeling New Biodrugs

  • Drug Development
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Abstract

Hybridoma fusion technology, proposed by Köhler and Milstein in 1975, started major developments in the field of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). During the following 2 decades, their high potential as laboratory tools was rapidly exploited for biotechnology and biomedical applications. Today, mAbs represent over 30% of all biological proteins undergoing clinical trials and are the second largest class of biodrugs after vaccines. With the help of antibody engineering, mAbs have been reduced in size, rebuilt into multivalent molecules, and conjugated with drugs, toxins, or radioisotopes for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune disorders, graft rejection, and infectious diseases. Additionally, in the past few years, important advances have been made in the design, selection, and production of these new types of engineered antibodies. The present review focuses on the structural and functional characteristics of mAbs and their fragments, and also provides a walk through the most important methods used in antibody selection. In addition, the recent trends in antibody engineering for improving antibody clinical efficacy are also reviewed.

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Notes

  1. The use of trade names is for product identification purposes only and does not imply endorsement.

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Acknowledgments

The authors were supported by grants from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (PTDC/BIA-BCM/64275/2006). Drs Aires da Silva and Corte-Real are the recipients of a fellowship from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia. The authors also thank Dr Sara Maia for a critical reading of the manuscript.

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  1. URIA-Centro de Patogénese Molecular, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. das Forças Armadas, 1649-019, Lisbon, Portugal

    Frederico Aires da Silva, Sofia Corte-Real &  Joao Goncalves

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  1. Frederico Aires da Silva
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  2. Sofia Corte-Real
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  3. Joao Goncalves
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Correspondence to Joao Goncalves.

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Aires da Silva, F., Corte-Real, S. & Goncalves, J. Recombinant Antibodies as Therapeutic Agents. BioDrugs 22, 301–314 (2008). https://doi.org/10.2165/00063030-200822050-00003

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