Clinical targeting recombinant immunotoxins for cancer therapy

Abstract

Meng Li,1,* Zeng-Shan Liu,1,* Xi-Lin Liu,1,* Qi Hui,2,* Shi-Ying Lu,1 Lin-Lin Qu,1 Yan-Song Li,1 Yu Zhou,1 Hong-Lin Ren,1 Pan Hu1 1Key Laboratory of Zoonosis Research, Ministry of Education, Institute of Zoonosis, College of Veterinary Medicine, China-Japan Union Hospital, The First Hospital, Jilin University, Changchun, 2School of Pharmacy, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: Recombinant immunotoxins (RITs) are proteins that contain a toxin fused to an antibody or small molecules and are constructed by the genetic engineering technique. RITs can bind to and be internalized by cells and kill cancerous or non-cancerous cells by inhibiting protein synthesis. A wide variety of RITs have been tested against different cancers in cell culture, xenograft models, and human patients during the past several decades. RITs have shown activity in therapy of several kinds of cancers, but different levels of side effects, mainly related to vascular leak syndrome, were also observed in the treated patients. High immunogenicity of RITs limited their long-term or repeat applications in clinical cases. Recent advances in the design of immunotoxins, such as humanization of antibody fragment, PEGylation, and modification of human B- and T-cell epitopes, are overcoming the above mentioned problems, which predict the use of these immunotoxins as a potential therapeutic method to treat cancer patients. Keywords: targeted therapy, hematologic malignancies, solid tumors, vascular leak syndrome, immunogenicity 

Keywords

• tumor targeted therapy
• hematologic malignancies
• solid tumors
• vascular leak syndrome
• immunogenicity;