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Nanobodies, Single-Domain Antigen-Binding Fragments of Camelid Heavy-Chain Antibodies

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Book cover Current Trends in Monoclonal Antibody Development and Manufacturing

Part of the book series: Biotechnology: Pharmaceutical Aspects ((PHARMASP,volume XI))

Abstract

Antibodies or immunoglobulins are glycoproteins produced by B-cells and play a central role in host immune defense. Antibodies can be elicited virtually against any substance. Moreover, the immune response to any given antigen can be diverse, comprising different antibodies exhibiting different affinities and/or epitope specificities. Due to their antigen specificity, high affinity and almost the limitless repertoire diversity, antibodies have placed themselves among the most attractive reagents for both fundamental and applied sciences.

Conventional antibodies are multimers of heavy (H) and light (L) chains, each chain consisting of variable (V) and constant (C) domains (Porter 1973; Padlan 1994). Naturally, in a conventional antibody, the variable region of the light chain (VL) and the variable region of the heavy chain (VH) combine to make the antigen binding site, although, in some cases, the heavy chain alone can also bind antigen (Utsumi and Karush 1964). The constant domains of antibodies are not involved in antigen recognition; the heavy chain constant regions CH2 and CH3 (Fc) are responsible for effector functions, which trigger the elimination of antigens (Fig. 3-1a) (Dwek et al. 1984; Burton 1985).

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Abbreviations

CH:

Constant domain of the heavy chain

Fab:

Fragment antigen binding

Fv:

Fragment variable

H:

Heavy chain

HCAb:

Heavy-chain antibody

L:

Light chain

scFv:

Single chain fragment variable

VH:

Variable domain of the heavy chain of the conventional antibodies

VHH:

Variable domain of the heavy chain of the heavy-chain antibodies

VL:

Variable domain of the light chain of the conventional antibodies

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  1. VIB, Flanders Institute for Biotechnology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

    Gholamreza Hassanzadeh Ghassabeh, Serge Muyldermans & Dirk Saerens

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  1. Gholamreza Hassanzadeh Ghassabeh
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  2. Serge Muyldermans
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Ghassabeh, G.H., Muyldermans, S., Saerens, D. (2010). Nanobodies, Single-Domain Antigen-Binding Fragments of Camelid Heavy-Chain Antibodies. In: Shire, S., Gombotz, W., Bechtold-Peters, K., Andya, J. (eds) Current Trends in Monoclonal Antibody Development and Manufacturing. Biotechnology: Pharmaceutical Aspects, vol XI. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-76643-0_3

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