Antibody Based Delivery of Toxins and Other Active Molecules for Cancer Therapy

Note: In lieu of an abstract, this is an excerpt from the first page. The use of radio-and chemotherapeutic agents in cancer therapy have demonstrated evident antitumor effects, but also limitations (remarkable side-effects due to lack of selectivity for tumor cells, development of drug resistance, and occurrence of secondary malignancies). As a consequence, the study and development of alternative therapies, such as immunotherapy, has been deeply stimulated, in order to find therapies with greater specificity for transformed cells and less nonspecific toxicity. The advantage of immunotherapy lies in its characteristics (the recognition of specific targets on the cell membrane), which are completely independent from the parameters on which chemotherapy and radiotherapy are based. This results in a lack of superimposition of side-effects and unimpaired cytotoxicity, towards cell clones resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Today, inspired by Ehrlich’s “magic bullet” concept, one of the most promising research approaches is based on the linking of pharmacologically active molecules to carriers, mainly antibodies, for selective delivery to target cells. These hybrid conjugates are primarily applied to research in the field of cancer therapy