Toxin-Based Therapeutic Approaches

Shapira, Assaf; Benhar, Itai

The following review provides highlights of several prominent studies in this field; products from some of these studies have been evaluated clinically, or are currently undergoing clinical evaluation, mostly in context of oncological diseases. Constructs were classified by the targeting strategy used, namely surface antigen/receptor specific targeting (immunotoxins), transcriptional targeting (suicide genes) and protease specific targeting (Protease activated toxins). Emphasis has been put on constructs in which the toxic moiety is a derivative of the bacterial toxins produced by Corynebacterium diphtheria (Diphtheria toxin), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Pseudomonas exotoxin A) and Bacillus anthrachis (Anthrax toxin); or plant produced toxins (ribosome inactivating proteins). For recent reviews about the botulinum toxin, a bacterial neurotoxin which is commonly applied in today's medicine and is not covered in the following pages, see [1] [2] [3] [4] .