Neutralizing Interaction of Therapeutic Antibodies against TNF Superfamily

The binding of the tumor necrosis factor superfamilies (TNFSF) to their receptors (TNFRSF) initiates many pro-inflammatory immune responses. TNFSF are inflammatory cytokines mediating a diverse range of signaling events within cells that trigger necrosis and apoptosis. Cytokines plays central roles in the communication of the immune systems, and thus selective disrupting of cytokine pathway by specific antibody can alter ongoing inflammation. Monoclonal antibody drugs have been developed for a long time to treat TNFSF-related diseases. Antibody drugs targeting TNFSF have shown dramatic improvement in patients of autoimmune diseases. The essential mechanism of these antibody-based drugs is antagonism of the interaction between TNFSF and TNFRSF. In this review, we describe the interactions of ligand-receptor interaction of TNFSF and structural basis for the neutralizing interactions of the FDA-approved antibody drugs directed to TNFSF.