Monoclonal antibodies for multidrug-resistant infections

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• By Ann Synthia Wanjiru Irungu

Over the years, antibiotic resistance has been a major concern and a worrying phenomenon globally. Multiple factors including the overuse of antibiotics, non-human use of antibiotics, as well as the overprescription of antibiotics in clinical settings among others, have been linked to this phenomenon. This has led to increased mortality levels as well as economic expenses. Interestingly, the management of multidrug-resistant infections in clinical settings is complicated due to the lack of currently approved antimicrobials that can contain the drug-resistant strains. The need to develop new antibiotics with unique mechanisms of action that are not cross affected with the existing mechanisms of resistance has led to the consideration of developing antibody-based therapies as alternatives to antimicrobials. Therapies based on monoclonal antibodies are ideally suited for the treatment and prevention of bacteria-resistant infections by having a number of characteristics, such as the absence of susceptibility to existing resistance mechanisms, high specificity, safety as well as efficiency in humans. Currently, only three therapeutic monoclonal antibodies have been approved for antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection, namely raxibacumab, obiltoxaximab and bezlotoxumab. The first two have been developed to curb inhalational anthrax which is a fatal infection acquired due to the inhalation of Bacillus anthracis while the latter has been developed for the prevention of infections caused by Clostridium difficile. In the three mentioned antibodies, the disease is prevented due to the neutralisation of toxins via binding to highly conserved epitopes on toxin subunits. For the monoclonal antibodies to work on resistant infections, they will need to target epitopes present on the bacterial cell and facilitate clearance by the immune system to be effective. Availability of large data sets comprising genomic sequences and global profiling experiments may serve as raw material for developing high-value epitopes. Therefore, the high-value epitopes could aid in the development and improvement of the efficiency of the production of monoclonal antibodies against challenging antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Keywords: Epitopes, Antibiotic resistance, Mechanisms of action, Monoclonal antibodies, Genomic sequences, Global profiling

Image source:
Antibody by PDB-101, available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International at https://pdb101.rcsb.org/motm/21

Citation:
Ann Synthia Wanjiru Irungu. Monoclonal antibodies for multidrug-resistant infections. The Torch. 2021. 2 (30).
Available from: https://www.styvalley.com/pub/magazines/torch/read/monoclonal-antibodies-for-multidrug-resistant-infections/.

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