Potential Promises and Perils of Human Biological Treatments for Immunotherapy in Veterinary Oncology

Abstract

The emergence of immunotherapy for the treatment of human cancers has heralded a new era in oncology, one that is making its way into the veterinary clinic. As the immune system of many animal species commonly seen by veterinarians is similar to humans, there is great hope for the translation of human therapies into veterinary oncology. The simplest approach for veterinarians would be to adopt existing reagents that have been developed for human medicine, due to the potential of reduced cost and the time it takes to develop a new drug. However, this strategy may not always prove to be effective and safe with regard to certain drug platforms. Here, we review current therapeutic strategies that could exploit human reagents in veterinary medicine and also those therapies which may prove detrimental when human-specific biological molecules are used in veterinary oncology. In keeping with a One Health framework, we also discuss the potential use of single-domain antibodies (sdAbs) derived from camelid species (also known as Nanobodies™) for therapies targeting multiple veterinary animal patients without the need for species-specific reformulation. Such reagents would not only benefit the health of our veterinary species but could also guide human medicine by studying the effects of outbred animals that develop spontaneous tumors, a more relevant model of human diseases compared to traditional laboratory rodent models.

A Scoping Review on Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors in Cats: Current Evidence and Future Directions

“…Although humanized mAbs have shown efficacy in vitro and in a xenograft model of FMC [113,116] and a 92% homology between feline VEGF and human VEGF-A, and also, the immunoreactivity of bevacizumab with feline VEGF has been demonstrated [207], simply administering humanized mAbs to veterinary patients is unlikely to be successful. Possible complications include inactivation of the mAb by the recipient's immune system or development of (severe) adverse reactions [208,209]. The production of a caninized mAb against canine EGFR and its efficacy against two canine mammary cell lines has been demonstrated [210], indicating that such a treatment could also be feasible in cats.…”