Björn L. Frendéus
Published: 2024-10-14
Total Pages: 135
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Immunotherapy is a clinically proven concept to prevent and treat diverse diseases. Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAb) have transformed cancer patient survival and the quality of life for patients with inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Vaccination with attenuated viruses or microbial virulence factors is a validated strategy to control infectious disease and has eradicated the global pandemic Smallpox infection. Recently, the concept of encoding transgenes, such as the receptor-binding COVID-19 spike protein, cytokines, antibodies, or immunogenic tumor antigens into non-viral or viral vectors has been validated as a powerful means to achieve vaccination for protection against pandemic infections, and cancer immunotherapy respectively. For certain immunotherapeutic targets and mechanisms, vector-based targeting offers distinct advantages over the traditional protein format. For example, in cancer immunotherapy vectorization may enable local delivery, production, and tumor-enriched exposure of powerful immune-modulatory antibodies, for example anti-CTLA-4 or anti-CD28 that are too toxic to allow full therapeutic dosing upon systemic administration.