Definition

A formulation composed of nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab) paclitaxel, which is an albumin-stabilized nanoparticle containing the natural taxane paclitaxel, complexed with danburstotug, a human monoclonal antibody directed against the immunosuppressive ligand programmed cell death-1 ligand 1 (PD-L1; cluster of differentiation 274; CD274), with potential antineoplastic activity. Upon administration of nab-paclitaxel/danburstotug complex AP160, the danburstotug moiety specifically binds to PD-L1 and targets this formulation to PD-L1-positive tumor cells. In turn, paclitaxel binds to and stabilizes microtubules, which prevents depolymerization and inhibits cellular motility, mitosis, and replication. This leads to cell death of PD-L1-expressing tumor cells that were targeted by this agent. The combination of albumin-stabilization and targeting by the danburstotug moiety allows for higher efficacy and decreased paclitaxel-induced toxicity as it specifically targets PD-L1-expressing tumor cells. PD-L1 is overexpressed by many human cancer cell types.