Antibody based surgical imaging and phototherapy for cancer
In 1944 Albert Coons was the first to show that a fluorescent molecule could be conjugated directly to an antibody made against a target site of interest. This binding does not affect antibody specificity so that labeled antibodies can be used to visualize the location and distribution of the target site of interest. Several years later the first report was published on in vivo imaging of tumour specific receptors with antibodies conjugated with near infrared dyes. As the portfolio of antibodies used for immunotherapy is rapidly expanding, there is a parallel opportunity to advance antibody-based imaging and antibody-based theranostics techniques to assist surgical treatment.
However, in current clinical practice the number of FDA and EMA approved probes for human medical applications is still limited and does not meet the need for the wide range of diseases that could benefit from fluorescent antibody-based treatment strategies. This dissertation presents a systemic evaluation of repurposed therapeutic antibodies for antibody-based imaging (section I of this thesis) and an antibody-based theranostic approach (section II of this thesis) to assist surgical treatment.