Two-in-One Designer Antibodies

摘要

Cancer and certain infectious diseases such as HIV-1/AIDS that are characterized by genetic heterogeneity are often difficult to treat with a single therapeutic agent. Combination therapies that target multiple disease-associated molecules are therefore widely deployed. For example, mixtures of antibodies are being tested for clinical use, despite high development, manufacturing, and treatment costs. The requirement for multiple antibodies is based on the prevailing one antibody-one antigen dogma. On page 1610 in this issue, Bostrom et al. (I) overthrow this dogma and describe a new "two-in-one" designer antibody concept in which the same binding site on an antibody is engineered to recognize two different antigens, both with high affinity.