Engineered Cytokines for Cancer and Autoimmune Disease Immunotherapy

Abstract

Cytokine signaling is critical to a range of biological processes including cell development, tissue repair, aging, and immunity. In addition to acting as key signal mediators of the immune system, cytokines can also serve as potent immunotherapies with more than 20 recombinant products currently Food and Drug Administration (FDA)‐approved to treat conditions including hepatitis, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, and various cancers. Yet despite their biological importance and clinical utility, cytokine immunotherapies suffer from intrinsic challenges that limit their therapeutic potential including poor circulation, systemic toxicity, and low tissue‐ or cell‐specificity. In the past decade in particular, methods have been devised to engineer cytokines in order to overcome such challenges and here, the myriad strategies are reviewed that may be employed in order to improve the therapeutic potential of cytokine and chemokine immunotherapies with applications in cancer and autoimmune disease therapy, as well as tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. For clarity, these strategies are collected and presented as they vary across size scales, ranging from single amino acid substitutions, to larger protein‐polymer conjugates, nano/micrometer‐scale particles, and macroscale implants. Together, this work aims to provide readers with a timely view of the field of cytokine engineering with an emphasis on early‐stage therapeutic approaches.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Mar 09, 2021
Source ID
10.1002/adhm.202002214

Entities

People

  • Andrew Chyong
  • Biaggio Uricoli
  • Christopher C. Porter
  • Emma Costanza
  • Erik C Dreaden
  • James M. Kelvin
  • Juhi Jain
  • Lacey A. Birnbaum
  • Priscilla Do
  • Sarwish Rafiq

Organizations

  • American Cancer Society
  • Emory University
  • Emory University School of Medicine
  • Georgia Tech
  • National Institutes of Health
  • St. Baldrick's Foundation
  • United States Department of Defense
  • Winship Cancer Institute

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Medicine

Readers

  • Immunology
  • Neurotrauma and Rehabilitation Medicine.
  • Oncology

Technology Areas

  • Biotechnology
  • Biotechnology - Cancer Biotech