Therapeutic antibodies: their mechanisms of action and the pathological findings they induce in toxicity studies

Antibodies can swiftly provide therapeutics to target disease-related moleculesdiscovered in genomic research. Antibody engineering techniques have been activelydeveloped and these technological innovations have intensified the development oftherapeutic antibodies. From the mid-1990’s, a series of therapeutic antibodies werelaunched that are now being used in clinic. The disease areas that therapeutic antibodiescan target have subsequently expanded, and antibodies are currently utilized aspharmaceuticals for cancer, inflammatory disease, organ transplantation, cardiovasculardisease, infection, respiratory disease, ophthalmologic disease, and so on. This paperbriefly describes the modes of action of therapeutic antibodies. Several non-clinicalstudy results of the pathological changes induced by therapeutic antibodies are alsopresented to aid the future assessment of the toxic potential of an antibody developed asa therapeutic.