Two in one: the emerging concept of bifunctional antibodies

Abstract

Therapeutic antibodies have become indispensable for treating a wide range of diseases, and their significance in drug discovery has expanded considerably over the past few decades. Bifunctional antibodies are now emerging as a promising new drug modality to address previously unmet needs in antibody therapeutics. Distinct from traditional antibodies that operate through an 'occupancy-based'inhibition mechanism, these innovative molecules recruit the protein of interest to a 'biological effector,'initiating specific downstream consequences such as targeted protein degradation or posttranslational modifications. In this review, we emphasize the potential of bifunctional antibodies to tackle diverse biomedical challenges.