Antibody therapy in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: the role of rituximab, 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan, and alemtuzumab

Aptamers: an emerging navigation tool of therapeutic agents for targeted cancer therapy

Chemotherapeutic agents have been used for the treatment of numerous cancers, but due to poor selectivity and severe systemic side effects, their clinical application is limited. Single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) or RNA aptamers could conjugate with highly toxic chemotherapy drugs, toxins, therapeutic RNAs or other molecules as novel aptamer-drug conjugates (ApDCs), which are capable of significantly improving the therapeutic efficacy and reducing the systemic toxicity of drugs and have great potential in clinics for targeted cancer therapy. In this review, we have comprehensively discussed and summarized the current advances in the screening approaches of aptamers for specific cancer biomarker targeting and development of the aptamer-drug conjugate strategy for targeted drug delivery. Moreover, considering the huge progress in artificial intelligence (AI) for protein and RNA structure predictions, automatic design of aptamers using deep/machine learning techniques could be a powerful approach for rapid and precise construction of biopharmaceutics (i.e., ApDCs) for application in cancer targeted therapy.

Molecular Pathology of Malignant Lymphoma

This review focuses on practical uses of molecular testing in mature B-cell and T-cell lymphomas with a focus on those lymphomas in which molecular testing is common. Clinical findings, histology, and biomarkers, as well as diagnostic and prognostic predictive value and practical applications of molecular testing for mature B- and T-cell lymphomas are presented.

Preparation of human scFv antibody against nasopharyngeal carcinoma and identification of its specificity

Abstract Conclusion: The selected scFv antibody could specifically recognize and target nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), and could be applied to clinical diagnosis and therapy.

OBJECTIVE

The aim was to construct and screen fully human anti-NPC single chain Fv fusion phage libraries, and to identify the specificity of the scFv antibody.

METHODS

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with NPC were immunized in vitro by NPC cells and transformed by Epstein-Barr virus. The total RNAwas used to construct the scFv libraries. By means of ELISA and immunochemistry, the positively bound scFv was selected and identified. The positive scFv was fused to EGFP, and was then expressed in E. coli strain BL21 (DE3) and purified. Furthermore, we observed the binding bioactivity.

RESULTS

The fusion protein has the biological activity of binding the NPC cells and emitting green fluorescence. In targeting experiments in vivo, the results showed that the fusion protein can successfully target the NPC.

Construction and selection of human Fab antibody phage display library of liver cancer

The aim of this study was to construct the fully humanized anti-hepatoma Fab fragment phage libraries and select antibodies against hepatoma specifically. PBMCs of liver cancer patients were immunized in vitro with HpeG(2) cells and were then transformed by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). After total RNA was extracted, the heavy chain Fd and kappa/lambda light chain were amplified by RT-PCR and cloned into the vector pComb3 to construct the libraries of Fab fragments. The libraries were then panned by HpeG(2) cells. By means of ELISA and immunochemistry, the Fab phage antibodies binding with hepatoma were selected and identified. The Fd and light chain PCR products were subsequently inserted into pComb3, and the volume of Fab libraries reached 1.7 x 10(7). The libraries were enriched about 138-fold by three cycles of panning. 540 phage clones were picked randomly. Using cell ELISA and immunohistochemistry with cultured cells, one clone Fab phage antibody, which had binding activity with hepatoma, was picked out. Fully humanized anti-hepatoma Fab antibody phage display libraries were constructed. One phage clone was selected and confirmed to specifically bind to hepatoma cells. The selected Fab antibody may be further developed and applied to clinical diagnosis and therapy.

Monoclonal antibody first dose cytokine release syndromes-mechanisms and prediction

Acute cytokine release syndromes are associated with some therapeutic antibodies in man, leading to a spectrum of clinical signs from nausea, chills and fever to more serious dose limiting hypotension and tachycardia. When anticipated this syndrome is typically manageable, however this adverse reaction recently became headline news when a massive and unexpected cytokine release syndrome occurred within a few hours of dosing six healthy volunteers with a therapeutic antibody, putting their lives at risk due to multiple organ failure. Preclinical studies did not predict this adverse event, emphasising the need to compare the relative potency of the product in man and the chosen toxicology species, so that additional margins of safety can be applied when conducting first in man (FIM) studies if there is uncertainty over the predictability of the toxicology species. In vitro human PBMC and whole blood cultures may be useful for predicting cytokine release. However since cytokine release arises through at least two distinct mechanisms, it should be emphasised that the utility of these in vitro methods needs to be established for each antibody product.

Pharmacotherapy of large B-cell lymphoma

BACKGROUND

Constituting approximately 30% of lymphoid malignancies, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common aggressive lymphoma in adults worldwide. The clinical and biologic heterogeneity that exists in DLBCL suggests that this entity might actually be comprised of several distinct neoplasms that could require different therapeutic approaches. DLBCL was considered incurable until combination chemotherapy became available.

OBJECTIVE

Current treatment strategies for the treatment of untreated and relapsed advanced-stage DLBCL are reviewed; novel treatments for DLBCL are discussed.

METHODS

Relevant literature was identified using the PubMed search engine and by reviewing abstracts from major conference proceedings.

RESULTS/CONCLUSION

Recently, novel therapeutic strategies, including the incorporation of immunotherapy to combination chemotherapy, have improved outcome for patients with DLBCL with cure rates exceeding 50%, especially in younger patients.

Manipulating B cell homeostasis: a key component in the advancement of targeted strategies

Understanding the homeostatic mechanisms governing lymphocyte pools achieves critical importance as lymphocyte-targeted therapies expand in use and scope. The primacy of B lymphocyte stimulator (BLyS) family ligands and receptors in governing B lymphocyte homeostasis has become increasingly clear in recent years, affording insight into novel opportunities and potential pitfalls for targeted B cell therapeutics. Interclonal competition for BLyS-BR3 interactions determines the size of naïve B cell pools and can regulate the stringency of selection applied as cells complete maturation. Thus one of the predicted consequences of ablative therapies targeting primary pools is relaxed negative selection. This suggests that BLyS levels and B cell reconstitution rates may serve useful prognostic roles and that BLyS itself might be targeted to circumvent relapse. Alternatively, manipulations that allow rare, minimally autoreactive specificities to survive and mature may lead to opportunities in cases where antibody-based vaccine development has heretofore been unsuccessful. BLyS family ligands and receptors also play a role in activated and memory B cell pools, suggesting they might likewise be targeted to promote or delete particular antigen-experienced subpopulations in a similar way.