Host-Pathogen Interactions and Monoclonal Antibody Therapeutics

Dear Colleagues,

Since the description of the first reliable methodology for developing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) by Köhler and Milstein in 1975 using the hybridoma technique, tremendous advances in their generation, characterization, engineering and expression have been made.

The great potential of these molecules, both from a laboratory and medical perspective, was immediately evident to the two scientists above, who were awarded the Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 for their discovery. In their seminal Nature paper of 1975, the authors state that “the manufacture of predefined specific antibodies by means of permanent tissue culture cell lines is of general interest” and after having described their work, they conclude that “such cells [the hybridomas] can be grown in vitro in massive cultures to provide specific antibody” and “such cultures could be valuable for medical and industrial use”. 

The hybridoma methodology is still used today by several investigators, but new technologies have been developed and described, especially with the advent of next-generation sequencing, and have been massively deployed in the field of antibody discovery, especially in the last decade. These new technologies are mainly characterized by high-throughput and rapidity, with an overall turnaround time from mAb discovery to full characterization as short as one month. These new technologies have further increased the importance of mAbs even today, especially during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, where a plethora of SARS-CoV-2-specific mAbs have been reported in the literature as potential therapeutic tools.

Suggested topics for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, new mAbs against infectious pathogens, the host immune response, the identification of potential viral antigens and epitopes, and new techniques for mAb discovery, development, production and engineering. There is no limitation on the type of contribution; original articles, communications, case reports, and reviews are all welcome. Your valuable input will enrich the current state of knowledge and contribute to the control of infectious diseases.

Dr. Giuseppe A. Sautto
Dr. Roberta Antonia Diotti
Guest Editors

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• monoclonal antibodies (mAbs)
• next-generation sequencing
• hybridoma
• B cells
• infectious diseases

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