AUTHOR=Buettner Matthew J. , Shah Sagar R. , Saeui Christopher T. , Ariss Ryan , Yarema Kevin J. 

TITLE=Improving Immunotherapy Through Glycodesign

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2018

YEAR=2018

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2018.02485

DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2018.02485

ISSN=1664-3224

ABSTRACT=Immunotherapy is revolutionizing health care, with the majority of high impact “drugs” approved in the past decade falling into this category of therapy. Despite considerable success, glycosylation – a key design parameter that ensures safety, optimizes biological response, and influences the pharmacokinetic properties of an immunotherapeutic – has slowed the development of this class of drugs in the past and remains challenging at present. This article describes how optimizing glycosylation through a variety of glycoengineering strategies provides enticing opportunities to not only avoid past pitfalls, but also to substantially improve immunotherapies ranging from antibodies, recombinant proteins, and cell-based therapies. We cover design principles important for early stage pre-clinical development and also discuss how various glycoengineering strategies can augment the biomanufacturing process to ensure the overall effectiveness of immunotherapeutics.