Monoclonal antibodies: A prospective and retrospective view

Background: Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) represent one of the most important classes of biotherapeutic agents. They are used to cure many diseases, including cancer, autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular diseases, angiogenesis-related diseases and more recently also haemophilia. They can be highly varied in terms of format, source, and specificity to improve efficacy and to obtain more targeted applications. This can be achieved by leaving substantially unchanged the basic structural components for paratope clustering. Objectives: The objective was to trace the most relevant findings that have deserved prestigious awards over the years, to report the most important clinical applications and to emphasize their latest emerging therapeutic trends. Results: We report the most relevant milestones and new technologies adopted for antibody development. Recent efforts in generating new engineered antibody-based formats are briefly reviewed. The most important antibody-based molecules that are (or are going to be) used for pharmacological practice have been collected in useful tables. Conclusions: The topics here discussed prove the undisputed role of mAbs as innovative biopharmaceuticals molecules and as vital components of targeted pharmacological therapies.