Table 1.

Engineered IFN-α variants

Drug name	Reference	Drug features	Drug benefits	Clinical phase
Peginterferon alfa-2b	Eggermont et al. [24]	PEG conjugated to IFN-α at IFN/IFNR-binding interface	Increases half-life and reduces peripheral toxicity with equivalent antitumor efficacy to IFN-α	III
Anti-CD20/IFN-α	Xuan et al. [30]; Liao et al. [31]	Anti-CD20 conjugated to mouse IFN-α	Kills lymphomas that express CD20 through adaptive immunity or direct IFN-α-mediated killing	Preclinical
TAK-573	Collins et al. [33]	Anti-CD38 conjugated to attenuated IFN-α	Binds to CD38+ cells with high affinity; increases circulating IFN-associated cytokine levels in human patients	I/II
IFN-α/anti-PDL1	Liang et al. [37]	Anti-PDL1 conjugated to IFN-α	Induces IFN-mediated upregulation of PDL1, which is then targeted to create feedforward antitumor immunity	Preclinical