Research Progress on Mechanisms and Optimization Methods for Toxicity Induced by Antibody–Drug Conjugates / 肿瘤防治研究

Since the approval of gemtuzumab ozogamicin, an antibody–drug conjugate (ADC) targeting CD33 in 2000, 13 ADC drugs have been approved by the FDA. Although these drugs have clearly improved the survival of patients with various types of advanced cancers, their significant toxicity has compromised their therapeutic benefits. The adverse reactions of ADC drugs are complex and include on-target and off-target toxicities, where the payload drug is a determining factor. Antibody and linker may also affect the degree of toxicity. Combination therapy becomes an important strategy in anticancer treatment because of its increased efficiency, but treatment-related adverse reactions also increase accordingly. This review comprehensively analyzes the toxicity mechanisms of current ADC drugs and proposes various optimization strategies, including but not limited to optimizing linker molecules, upgrading antibody design, and changing drug administration strategies, to improve the overall safety profile of ADC drugs.

Application of codon optimization strategy in heterologous protein expression / 生物工程学报

Enzymes are widely used in medical and biopharmaceuticals. They can be used not only for various disease treatments, but also clinical diagnosis. The use of microorganisms to express heterologous proteins has become the easiest and fastest way to obtain enzymes. In order to obtain high concentration and high-quality heterologous proteins, a common method is codon optimization of gene sequences. The traditional codon optimization strategy is mainly based on codon bias and GC content, ignoring complex and varied factors such as translational dynamics and metabolic levels. We provide here comprehensive codon optimization strategy based on gene level, transcriptional level, translational level, post-translational level and metabolic level, mainly including codon bias, codon harmonization, codon sensitivity, adjustment of gene sequence structure and some other influencing factors. We also summarize the aspects of strategy content, theoretical support and application. Besides, the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy are also systematically compared, providing an all-round, multi-level and multi-selection optimization strategy for heterogeneous protein expression, and also providing references for the enzyme industry and biopharmaceuticals.