Immunopharmacology: Developing Immunomodulation and Immunotherapy Strategies for Tumors and Inflammatory Disorders

Dear Colleagues,

Since the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for the discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation, targeting immune response signaling via immune checkpoint blockade molecules such as programmed cell death-1 and other cell surface molecules has become an attractive approach for drug development. To specifically suppress immunological or biological function of molecules involved in disease pathogenesis, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have been considered as immunotherapeutic and prophylactic drugs against a variety of diseases such as tumors, inflammatory disorders including autoimmune diseases, and virus infection-associated diseases.While many drug candidates are developed with promising results in pre-clinical studies, the majority are never approved, mainly due to severe adverse effects in clinical trials. Thus, further improvement of drug design to increase therapeutic efficacy while exhibiting less toxicity is both challenging and urgently required.

In this Special Issue of Vaccines, we focus on recent immunotherapeutic drug development, covering not only mAbs and its various applications, such as antibody-drug conjugates and single chain fragment variables, but also biologics and chemical compounds that regulate or modulate immune responses, which can also be utilized as vaccines or adjuvants targeting factors in the above diseases. In the area of immunopharmacology, we also hope to discuss strategies for overcoming issues related to adverse effects, leading to the improvement of therapeutic agents. Naturally, we also welcome original articles and reviews covering conventional immunopharmacological studies looking towards identification of novel drug targets and factors, or elucidating their mechanisms of action during immune reactions.

Dr. Naoyoshi Maeda
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• adjuvants
• antibody-drug conjugates
• autoimmune diseases
• biologics
• cell surface molecules
• chemical compounds
• immune checkpoint
• immunotherapy
• monoclonal antibodies
• single chain fragment variables
• tumors
• vaccines
• virus infection-associated diseases