Abstract: Cancer is the severest disease threatening human health. BiTE (bispecific T cell engager)represents a subclass of bispecific antibodies which have significant anti-tumor effects, activating the T cells of patients to kill cancer cells. It consists of two single chain variable fragments (scFvs)connected in tandem by a soft fusion linker. One of the scFv recognizes CD3ε on the surface of T cell, the other one recognizes tumor surface antigen. This structure and the specificity allow BiTE physically bridging T cell and tumor cell to form a T cell-BiTE-tumor cell complex, inducing formation of synapse, stimulating activation of T cell and production of tumor killing cytokines. In recent years, there has been a big progress in the BiTE anti-tumor research and promising effects in clinical studies. Therefore, in this paper, we review the biostructure, anti-tumor mechanism, clinical application and innovative usage of BiTE.

Key words: bispecific single chain antibody, BiTE, immunotherapy