Pegylated Proteins In Anti-Cancer Therapy PEGylation has been used in FDA-approved drug therapies and has achieved a successful track record. In 1990, the first PEGylated drug appeared, called Adagen, for the treatment of severe adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency with immunodeficiency disease (SCID). Since then, 17 PEGylated drug therapies have been approved by the FDA and sold on the market. These longer-acting solutions reduce the frequency of drug use and the dosage. Protein therapeutics and protein engineering are one of the newest and most promising biopharmaceutical therapy approaches. Because of their high specificity and fast onset, they are the first choice for synthetic therapeutics. Currently, some biologic drugs cannot fully realize their potential due to short half-life, protein degradation, and other characteristics that interfere with pharmacokinetics (PK). Through protein PEGylation, these biomolecules can have an extended half-life in the body and can prevent from rapid renal filtration via the kidneys. Compared with unmodified forms of biomolecules, PEGylation can confer many notable and unique pharmacological advantages, such as increased drug solubility, reduced dosage frequency, toxicity and renal clearance, extended cycle life, and increased drug stability, enhanced protection against proteolytic degradation, reduced immunogenicity and antigenicity, and minimal loss of biological activity. As more and more PEG conjugates enter advanced clinical trials, people have recognized the importance of PEGylated peptides and proteins for anti-cancer therapy. Enzymes, monoclonal antibodies and cytokines are the three main types of proteins used in anti-cancer therapy or adjuvant therapy.
1. PEGylated Monoclonal Antibody Fragment