Outbreaks of viral infections, such as the Ebola epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic, have made us aware of the need for rapid treatment options when there is no appropriate vaccine. Could monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) serve this need?
This week, Pediatrics is early releasing a State of the Art Review entitled “Monoclonal Antibodies for Pediatric Viral Disease Prevention and Treatment,” by Zeynep Bahadir, MD, and colleagues from Weill Cornell Medicine and Oregon Health & Science University, which discusses where the current science lies with regard to mAbs (10.1542/peds.2024-068690).
We are all familiar with the concept of passive protection through administration of antibodies, such as in the case of viral hepatitis—and most recently, the advent of using mAbs like palivizumab and now nirsevimab to prevent respiratory syncytial virus infections.
Because there have been recent advances in high throughput screening and manufacturing, very precise mAbs can now be made much more quickly. There are currently FDA-approved mAbs to treat Ebola and COVID-19, and mAb treatments for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and cytomegalovirus are currently in clinical trials.
This review is great reading, and the authors discuss novel platforms for mAb production (including plant platforms, viral vectors, and mRNA) and alternative delivery strategies, such as nanoparticles to overcome the blood-brain barrier, aerosols, oral delivery mechanisms, and the use of human milk as a vehicle to deliver the mAbs.
Finally, the authors discuss the current challenges, including the difficulty with testing use of mAbs in pediatric populations, and accessibility challenges, particularly in areas with limited resources.
Move from the present into the future by reading this review and learning more about the prospect of these therapies.
