**Pharmacological Properties of Monoclonal Antibodies Directed Against Interleukins**

Kaloyan Georgiev and Marieta Georgieva

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/61774

#### **Abstract**

The road to individualized therapy goes through detecting specific targets (e.g., anti‐ gens), suitable for influence, and their selective targeting by using specially designed molecules (e.g., antibodies). A significant advance in this area is the development of ther‐ apeutic monoclonal antibodies. This approach enables maximizing the therapeutic effect on one hand, and reducing systemic toxicity on the other hand. In recent years, signifi‐ cant progress was made in improving their pharmacological performance – pharmacoki‐ netics (longer half-life) and pharmacodynamics properties (better efficacy because of stronger affinity to human receptor), and safety profile (less antigenic and immunogenic reactions). Interleukins are a diverse, multifunctional group of proteins that carry out communication between various immune cells and control their gene expression. They manage the intensity and magnitude of an inflammatory response, and control differen‐ tiation, proliferation, and secretion of antibodies. Therefore, interleukin network repre‐ sents an interesting pharmacological target, modulation of which using either biological or small chemical agents could contribute to suppression of excessive activated immune system and successfully treat the diseases that they are involved in.

**Keywords:** Monoclonal antibodies, pharmacological properties, pharmacokinetics, phar‐ macodynamics, cytokines, interleukins
