Antibody-Recruitment as a Therapeutic Strategy: A Brief History and Recent Advances

Antibodies are a significant and growing sector within the global pharmaceutical industry. The popularity of antibodies as therapeutics derives from - at least in part - evolvable affinity for virtually any disease-relevant cell surface receptor, as well as unique immunotherapeutic mechanisms of action, including neutralization, antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis (ADCP), complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC), and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). While advances in the large-scale expression and purification of therapeutic antibodies have been made, these remain costly and laborious tasks. Agents that redirect endogenous antibodies to target a pathogen or malignant cell obviate the need for new antibody discovery and production. Chimeric antibody-recruiting technologies consist of a target cell surface receptor binding domain, and an endogenous antibody-binding domain. By design, these agents bring endogenous antibodies to the surface of a target pathogen or diseased cell, which can result in targeted cytotoxicity by antibody-dependent mechanisms. This review highlights seminal contributions and recent advances in this growing and important therapeutic field.