Protein engineering and design for drug delivery

Over the past decade considerable effort has been focused on the genetic construction, expression, and characterization of fusion proteins designed to selectively target specific disease-causing cells and/or extracellular targets. In each instance, the coding sequences for the functional domains of different proteins have been genetically fused, resulting in the formation of fusion proteins which retain the function of their component segments. As anticipated from their design, many of these fusion proteins offer a marked therapeutic advantage over conventional agents in preclinical studies. While several recombinant fusion proteins have entered or will shortly begin Phase I/II human clinical trials, the first of these fusion proteins is currently being evaluated in Phase III human clinical trials for the treatment of cutaneous T cell lymphoma.