Engineered cysteine antibodies: an improved antibody-drug conjugate platform with a novel mechanism of drug-linker stability

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are fulfilling the promise of targeted therapy with meaningful clinical success. An intense research effort is directed towards improving pharmacokinetic profiles, toxicity and chemical stability of ADCs. The majority of ADCs use amide and thioether chemistry to link potent cytotoxic agents to antibodies via endogenous lysine and cysteine residues. While maleimide-cysteine conjugation is used for many clinical...