• Recombinant Immunotherapeutic for cancer therapy: A Promising New Frontier
  • Javad Yaghmoorian Khojini,1 Fatemeh Mohammad-Rafiei,2 Seyed Mehdi Kalantar,3,*
    1. Master student of medical biotechnology/ Department of Medical Biotechnology/ School of Medicine/ Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences/ Yazd/ Iran
    2. Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran
    3. Department of Medical Genetics, School of Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran


  • Introduction: Nowadays, there is a growing curiosity about novel cancer treatments that influence on fate of millions of people worldwide. Immunotherapy is one of them. One bright area in immunotherapy is the development of recombinant immunotherapeutics. Recombinant immunotherapeutics are a class of drugs that are produced by integrating various proteins or heritable material from different sources to make a unique patch that can stimulate the immune system in distinguishing ways to eliminate cancer cells. These medicines, unlike traditional chemotherapy ones, specifically target cancerous cells by binding to their surface receptors and the other biomarkers particularly associated with tumorous cells. Immunotoxins, ADCs, and CAR T cells are exemplifications of them. However, several challenges need to be addressed, including the development of resistance and toxins associated with these curatives. We’ll discuss some types of recombinant immunotherapeutics for cancer and their implicit benefits and challenges in the following sections.
  • Methods: This study has been performed by searching various texts, authoritative scientific articles, and several keywords such as cancer, protein therapeutics, recombinant proteins, and so on to find all relevant publications on recombinant immunotherapeutic -based approaches for cancer therapy. The articles used in this study are extracted from PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar databases from 2017 to 2022.
  • Results: According to the findings, recombinant immunotherapeutics are designed to be specific to target cancer cells. Some of them include (A) Immunotoxins which are fusion proteins that are developed to widely attach to cancer cells specific antigen, offering a lethal dose of toxin directly to the cancer cell. Immunotoxins are helpful in clinical usage in cases of hematologic malignancies. B) Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are an antibody that targets a specific antigen on cancer cells, conjoined to a cytotoxic medicine. Once the ADC binds to the cancer cell, it discharges the cytotoxic medicine into the cancer cell, conducting to cell death. ADCs have shown usage in several types of cancer, including breast cancer and lymphoma. (C) Chimeric antigen receptor or (CAR) T cells are another recombinant immunotherapeutics that activate the immune system to eliminate cancerous cells. This therapy has been used in patients with hematologic malignancies like non-Hodgkin's lymphomaacute and lymphoblastic leukemia. (D) Checkpoint inhibitors, work by blocking checkpoint proteins from binding with their partner proteins. This prevents the “off” signal from being sent, allowing the T cells to kill cancer cells ;( E) Cytokines, which are proteins that stimulate the immune system; and (F) vaccines, which can stimulate the immune system to fight against cancer cells. Another important point to mention is the development of resistance, Toxicity and side effects associated with it. Immunotoxins and ADCs can drive off-target toxins due to the expression of the target antigen on normal cells. CAR T cells can lead to cytokine release and neurotoxicity, which can be life-treating.
  • Conclusion: Overall, recombinant immunotherapeutics represent promising tools in the treatment of cancer. These medicines have shown remarkable success in preclinical and clinical studies. Although numerous challenges need to be overcome it’s hoped that recombinant immunotherapeutics will become an important tool in the fight against cancer in the next years.
  • Keywords: Cancer, protein therapeutics, recombinant proteins, recombinant immunotherapeutic