Antibody-drug conjugates as drug carrier systems for bioactive agents

ABSTRACT

Conventional therapeutic strategies for the treatment of various types of cancers and tumors are known to have poor therapeutic indexes, lack of specificity, and potential cytotoxic effects on normal healthy tissues. Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are considered as novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of various diseases especially cancer. ADCs reduce the chances of systemic cytotoxicity and, ultimately, increase the therapeutic index of conjugated drug. ADCs are stable in systemic circulation, but for the success of ADCs, all the components of ADC should function in a flawless manner. Despite of these components of ADCs, target selection is another stringent factor that also needs equal consideration during the development of ADC. The authors briefly discuss the key requirements of ADCs that seek further advancements for the success of ADCs.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Antibody-drug conjugates
• drug release strategies from ADC
• key requirements for ADC
• linkers
• monoclonal antibodies
• pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of ADC

Acknowledgments

Muhammad Sajid Hamid Akash and Kanwal Rehman contributed equally to this work.