ABSTRACT
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common causes of cancer-related death, and most patients with HCC are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Before 2017, tyrosine kinase inhibitors were the main drugs for the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. With the emergence of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), immunotherapy has gradually brought new hope to such patients. At present, the combination of ICIs and other systemic or local treatments has become a potential strategy for the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, and some of these combinations have been included in large-scale clinical trials. The main challenges of immunotherapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma include the exploration of predictive biomarkers, management of immune-related adverse events, and exploration of effective combination regimens. This article provides the latest research progress on the single or combined use of ICIs and other immunotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma and discusses the limitations of current research and clinical application and the future development direction.
ABSTRACT
Conventional IgG is composed of heavy and light chains. The light chain has one variable region (VL) and one constant region (CL) domain, whereas the heavy chain has one variable region (VH) and three constant region domains (CH1, CH2 and CH3). Single domain antibody (sdAb) is a kind of antibody that is composed of a variable domain of heavy chain and devoid of the light chain completely. Due to its small size, it is also called as nanobody. Although the sdAb has a simple structure, it can exhibit a comparable even better antigen-binding affinity than conventional antibody. Compared with conventional antibody, the small size, high stability and simplicity in recombinant expression are representative advantages of sdAb. In recent years, scientists are becoming increasingly interested in the roles of sdAb in fundamental biomedical research and clinical application. In this review, we summarized the structural features, physicochemical properties, screening strategies and recent advances in application of sdAb.