Facile Generation of Potent Bispecific Fab via Sortase A and Click Chemistry for Cancer Immunotherapy

Leveraging immunoliposomes as nanocarriers against SARS-CoV-2 and its emerging variants

The global COVID-19 pandemic arising from SARS-CoV-2 has impacted many lives, gaining interest worldwide ever since it was first identified in December 2019. Till 2023, 752 million cumulative cases and 6.8 million deaths were documented globally. COVID-19 has been rapidly evolving, affecting virus transmissibility and properties and contributing to increased disease severity. The Omicron is the most circulating variant of concern. Although success in its treatment has indicated progress in tackling the virus, limitations in delivering the current antiviral agents in battling emerging variants remain remarkable. With the latest advancements in nanotechnology for controlling infectious diseases, liposomes have the potential to counteract SARS-CoV-2 because of their ability to employ different targeting strategies, incorporating monoclonal antibodies for the active and passive targeting of infected patients. This review will present a concise summary of the possible strategies for utilizing immunoliposomes to improve current treatment against the occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 and its variants.

Bacterial enzymes: powerful tools for protein labeling, cell signaling, and therapeutic discovery

Bacteria have evolved a diverse set of enzymes that enable them to subvert host defense mechanisms as well as to form part of the prokaryotic immune system. Due to their unique and varied biochemical activities, these bacterial enzymes have emerged as key tools for understanding and investigating biological systems. In this review, we summarize and discuss some of the most prominent bacterial enzymes used for the site-specific modification of proteins, in vivo protein labeling, proximity labeling, interactome mapping, signaling pathway manipulation, and therapeutic discovery. Finally, we provide a perspective on the complementary advantages and limitations of using bacterial enzymes compared with chemical probes for exploring biological systems.

Antibody-drug conjugates and bispecific antibodies targeting cancers: applications of click chemistry

Engineering approaches using antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) and bispecific antibodies (bsAbs) are designed to overcome the limitations of conventional chemotherapies and therapeutic antibodies such as drug resistance and non-specific toxicity. Cancer immunotherapies have been shown to be clinically successful with checkpoint blockade and chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy; however, overactive immune systems still represent a major problem. Given the complexity of a tumor environment, it would be advantageous to have a strategy targeting two or more molecules. We highlight the necessity and importance of a multi-target platform strategy against cancer. Approximately 400 ADCs and over 200 bsAbs are currently being clinically developed for several indications, with promising signs of therapeutic activity. ADCs include antibodies that recognize tumor antigens, linkers that stably connect drugs, and powerful cytotoxic drugs, also known as payloads. ADCs have direct therapeutic effects by targeting cancers with a strong payload. Another type of drug that uses antibodies are bsAbs, targeting two antigens by linking to antigen recognition sites or bridging cytotoxic immune cells to tumor cells, resulting in cancer immunotherapy. Three bsAbs and one ADC have been approved for use by the FDA and the EMA in 2022. Among these, two of the bsAbs and the one ADC are used for cancers. We introduced that bsADC, a combination of ADC and bsAbs, has yet to be approved and several candidates are in the early stages of clinical development in this review. bsADCs technology helps increase the specificity of ADCs or the internalization and killing ability of bsAbs. We also briefly discuss the application of click chemistry in the efficient development of ADCs and bsAbs as a conjugation strategy. The present review summarizes the ADCs, bsAbs, and bsADCs that have been approved for anti-cancer or currently in development. These strategies selectively deliver drugs to malignant tumor cells and can be used as therapeutic approaches for various types of cancer.

Back on the scene: advances and challenges in CD3-related drugs in tumor therapy

CD3 molecules are mainly distributed on the membrane of mature T cells. They are involved in T cell antigen recognition, signal transduction, and regulation of T cell development. CD3-related monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are mainly used in the treatment of autoimmune diseases. Nearly half of all bispecific antibodies developed are used in tumor therapy, one of which is CD3 antigen. In this review, we discuss the importance of biological function and the crucial role of CD3 in tumor therapy. We highlight the research status of antibodies and small molecules targeting CD3 to provide guidance for future drug research.