About this Research Topic
The increasing burden on the world health care system due to infectious diseases is alarming. The incidences of Ebola outbreaks as well as reports of new cases of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases highlight the need for more concerted efforts to tackle these diseases. The challenges for diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases development of prophylactic and therapeutic strategies are significant. The added complications of antibiotic resistance strains have rendered conventional therapeutic strategies ineffective. Therefore, a paradigm shift towards recombinant antibody technology may help to elevate the complications associated to the development of prophylactic and therapeutic strategies for infectious diseases.
The advent of monoclonal antibody (mAb) technology began with the description of the hybridoma technology by Köhler and Milstein in 1975. Since then, the pioneering work of George P. Smith to introduce phage display technology in 1985, antibody phage display was developed in 1990/91, which revolutionized the way mAbs are to be generated into the 20th century. Recently in 2018, the antibody phage display technology was accorded with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The application of phage display for antibody display was the cornerstone to the introduction of derivative display methods for the discovery of mAbs. Since then, alternative display methods like yeast, ribosome, mammalian cell, insect cell and bacterial cell display have been applied for mAb discovery.
Although more than 80 recombinant antibodies have been approved for market as of 2019 and hundreds more are under clinical trials, majority of the mAbs are designed mainly for oncology indications. In terms of antibodies for infectious diseases, only three antibodies have been approved. These are Palivizumab for the treatment and prevention of respiratory syncytial virus disease, Raxibacumab against anthrax toxin and Bezlotoxumab to prevent recurrence of Clostridium difficile infections. As the application of mAbs are increasing together with developments in research and development laboratories worldwide, it is likely that a sea of new mAbs for infectious diseases will come into play in the near future.
Articles covering but not limited to the following topics will be considered for submission:
• Use of mAbs as potential immunotherapeutic molecules;
• Development of mAbs against various toxins;
• Description of mAb interaction with pathogen-associated targets;
• Application of novel approaches for the discovery of mAb against infectious agents;
• Antibody repertoire diversity in infectious disease;
• Development of novel computational approaches for the discovery of mAb against infectious agents.
Topic Editor Theam Soon Lim has received industry contracts from Cellvec Pvt. Ltd. and Novatec Immunodiagnostica GmbH. Topic Editor Michael Hust is the co-founder for Norden Vaccines GmbH, YUMAB GmbH and mAb-factory GmbH. Topic Editor Livia Visai has received funding from Eurocoating S.p.A. and Orthofix Inc. in the last 10 years.
Keywords: Recombinant Antibodies, Infectious Diseases, Display Methods, Phage Display, Toxins
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
