Sahana Mollah, senior manager, Global BioPharma Collaboration & CE Tech Marketing at SCIEX looks at how antibody variants are helping researchers develop new medicines.
Scientist
Over the past 35 years, biologic therapeutics have revolutionised the way we treat disease. Monoclonal antibodies (standard mAbs) have predominated in recent years as therapies for treating cancers and autoimmune diseases. While there are many more applications where mAbs can excel, researchers are finding better, smarter ways to expand beyond the limitations of these biologics. Intelligently designed antibody variants often referred to as “Frankenbodies” such as bi-specific and multi-specific mAbs, bi-specific T-cell engagers (BiTEs), peptibodies and nanobodies are showing promise.
Higher Performance Alternatives
Because of monospecific binding sites, standard mAbs can only interact with a single target on the cell surface. Their large size also hinders access to solid tissues and prevents them from crossing the blood-brain barrier. Frankenbodies are designed to overcome these limitations by including multiple binding sites and/or using specific fragments of conventional antibodies to provide greater in vivo stability, access to more targets and greater efficacy via multiple target binding. For example, one alternative to standard mAbs in cancer immunotherapy has been CAR T-cell therapies. However, multi-specific antibodies may provide a bigger advantage by being able to engage two or more antigens at once.