World Journal of
Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences

ROLE OF MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES IN CLINICAL RESEARCH AND THERAPY- A REVIEW

Ponnu Sarah Joseph, Jasmin Jomon, Shary Ramesh, Devi K R and Nithin Manohar*

ABSTRACT

Antibodies are natural proteins with modular structure, specific pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics and possibly produced against any antigens, thus giving them several advantages over small drug therapeutics. Monoclonal antibodies (mAb) have been applied to the diagnosis and therapy of an array of human diseases. They are a novel and promising therapeutic class used with great results in inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. The initial failures of early clinical trials have been overcome through the production of a new generation of mAb which features reduced immunogenicity and improved targeting abilities. The early models of mAb therapy were focused on enhancing the cytolytic mechanisms against the tumor cells. More recently, successful mAb-based therapies were targeted to molecules involved in the regulation of growth of cancer cells. Despite all the difficulties, clinical data is outlining an increasingly significant role for antibody-mediated cancer therapy as a versatile and powerful instrument in cancer treatment. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in industrialized countries and non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 85% of all lung cancers. It seems that mAbs therapy in NSCLC clearly marks the start of a new era in NSCLC treatment, with promise in improving patient survival and quality of life. Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) are an old immunological tool with applications in the fields of immunology, biotechnology, biochemistry, and applied biology. Recently, MAbs have been widely applied in the field of clinical medicine. Currently, MAbs account for one-third of all the new therapeutic treatments for breast cancer, leukemia, arthritis, transplant rejection, asthma, and psoriasis, with many more late-stage clinical trials being conducted. In this review, we outline the (i) production of MAbs, (ii) application of MAbs, (iii) antibody engineering, and (iv) pharmaceutical application of MAbs.

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