Antibody Drug Conjugation: Future of Cancer Care

Antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) is an emerging class of Biotherapeutics which represents a unique treatment strategy in the field of Oncology. The majority of anticancer agents developed to date have substantial side effect profiles and a narrow therapeutic index. Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) combine the specificity of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) with the potency of cytotoxic molecules, thus takes advantage of the best characteristics of both components. The emphasis of this article is to provide an overview of the design of ADCs which are intended to target and kill cancerous cells, their characteristics, challenges in the formulation of ADCs, cytotoxic agents used in the process, chemical linkers, their types and the type of monoclonal antibody (mAb) used to make up the components of the ADC. Also various analytical methods required for characterization and analysis of ADCs are also briefed.