In a new paper, several group leaders from the Centre for Cancer Immunology review and discuss the complicated mechanisms underlying anti-tumour immune responses, focusing on the potential of agonist antibodies to stimulate this and evoke cancer immunotherapy.
In the study entitled “Agonist antibodies for cancer immunotherapy: History, Hopes and Challenges.” published in Clinical Cancer Research, our researchers offer valuable insights into the challenges, advancements, and future prospects of using these antibodies to harness the immune system to combat cancer.
They underscore the importance of understanding immune regulation for the successful development of antibody immunotherapy for cancer, emphasising the central role of costimulatory receptors in immune response modulation and discuss the challenges of developing agonist antibodies to target these receptors.
Isotype selection and affinity is paramount in designing effective agonist antibodies, as is the tumour microenvironment (TME) on the efficacy of agonist antibodies. Therefore, tailoring therapeutic strategies based on the TME composition, should be explored, say the researchers.
Despite challenges and modest clinical responses observed in early-phase trials to date, the researchers express optimism for the future of agonist antibodies.
Professors Mark Cragg, Sean Lim, Stephen Beers and Aymen Al-Shamkhani were involved in writing the paper.