Molecular Communication Modeling of Antibody-Mediated Drug Delivery Systems

Antibody-mediated Drug Delivery Systems (ADDS) are emerging as one of the most encouraging therapeutic solutions for treating several diseases such as human cancers. ADDS use small molecules (antibodies) that propagate in the body and bind selectively to their corresponding receptors (antigens) expressed at the surface of the diseased cells. In this paper, the Molecular Communication (MC) paradigm, where information is conveyed through the concentration of molecules, is advocated for the engineering of ADDS and modeling their complex behavior, to provide a realistic model without the over-complication of system biology models, and the limitations of experimental approaches. The peculiarities of antibodies, including their anisotropic transport and complex electrochemical structure, are taken into account to develop an analytical model of the ADDS transport and antigen-binding kinetics. The end-to-end response of ADDS, from the drug injection to the drug absorption, is mathematically derived based on the geometry of the antibody molecule, the electrochemical structure of the antibody-antigen complex, and the physiology of the patient. The accuracy of the MC model is validated by finite-element (COMSOL) simulations. The implications of the complex interplay between the transport and kinetics parameters on the performance of ADDS are effectively captured by the proposed MC model. The MC model of ADDS will enable the discovery and optimization of drugs in a versatile, cost-efficient, and reliable manner.