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Commentary Open Access
Volume 4 | Issue 2 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.33696/cancerimmunol.4.068

A Surprising Benefit of Cysteine Capping for Antibody Drug Conjugates

  • 1BioMedicine Design, Medicinal Sciences, Pfizer Worldwide R&D, 610 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
  • 2Vaccine Research, Worldwide R&D, Pfizer Inc. 401 North Middletown Road, Pearl River, NY10965, USA
+ Affiliations - Affiliations

Corresponding Author

Xiaotian Zhong, xiaotian.zhong@pfizer.com

Received Date: November 10, 2022

Accepted Date: December 19, 2022

Abstract

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), combining the best features of monoclonal antibodies and small molecule drugs, are considered the “guided missiles” for cancer therapy, with eleven FDA-approved products. Yet the ADC modality still presents a huge challenge to drug developers, especially for targeting tumors with low abundance and/or heterogeneity of tumor-associated antigens. To improve therapeutic index and minimize drug product heterogeneity, a recent study by Procopio-Melino et al. [1] describes a revolutionary manufacturing process that produces superior quality next-generation site-specific cysteine (Cys)-based ADCs. It implements a unique Cys-capping technology for chemoselective-drug conjugation through a novel metabolic engineering approach in CHO cells. This innovative platform also provides a feasible path forward to integrate Cys-based site-specific conjugation with other site-specific conjugation methodologies for developing 
multi-payload ADCs.

Keywords

Antibody drug conjugates, Cancer and the Immune System, Cancer immunotherapy, Cancer Therapy, Multi-payload ADCs

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