Dear Colleagues,

Monoclonal antibodies have been enjoying increasing attention as the most significant category of protein therapeutics. Furthermore, they are relevant as targeting molecules for the delivery of drugs and toxins to specific cells as well.

A major quality concern for antibodies is both the content and the character of aggregated proteins in the drug product, which may affect the safety and efficacy of the biotherapeutics in patients mainly due to the potential immunogenicity of these aggregates. Therefore, a complete investigation of biotherapeutics for clinical trials must include an accurate quantification for particulates. Substantial efforts have been made to elucidate underlying causes, mechanisms and biological effects of antibody aggregation. A plethora of techniques have been used to analyze protein aggregates, such as size-exclusion chromatography, field flow fractionation, analytical ultracentrifugation, light obscuration, nanoparticle tracking analysis, micro-flow imaging, MIR-FTIR, UV-Vis spectroscopies, fluorescence, hydrophobic dye binding, etc.

This Special Issue of Antibodies will cover recent methodological advances in quantification and characterization of aggregates of all kind of antibodies, as well as recent findings on various mechanisms and biological effects of aggregation. Additional emphasis is given to promising strategies capable of minimizing aggregation of therapeutic antibodies during production and subsequent stages.

Dr. Frank Krause
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Antibodies is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• aggregate quantitation
• formulation
• immunogenicity
• monitoring
• oligomerization
• particulates
• quality control
• self-association
• size distribution
• storage stability