Current situation and prospect of immunoglobulin A as therapeutic drugs
For the past 40 years,monoclonal antibodies as therapeutic biological products have played an important role in the fields of oncology,hematology,autoimmune diseases and infections.Immunoglobulin G(IgG)antibodies are the mainly therapeutic monoclonal antibodies in the market at present;however,it was found that immunoglobulin A(IgA)can also play an equivalent role.Due to its unique structure and distribution in vivo,the recruitment of effector cells of IgA is different from IgG when mediating antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity(ADCC)effect.The participation of IgA in immune system regulation shows that IgA antibodies are expected to become the new therapeutic antibodies.The biological characteristics of IgA,application in diseases,as well as some technical limitations of IgA as therapeutic antibodies are reviewed in this paper.