Single-domain antibodies

Muruganandam, A., et al. 2002. Selection of phage-displayed llama single-domain antibodies that transmigrate across human blood-brain barrier endothelium. FASEB J 16 240. 

Vh. These single-domain antibodies are composed entirely of a single-variable antibody domain. Despite early excitement surrounding the functional activity of these, in those that have been studied, they rarely retained the affinity of the parent antibody and were poorly soluble and often prone to aggregation. Exposure of the hydrophobic surface of the Vh to the solvent, which normally interacts with the Vl, causes a sticky behavior of the isolated VhS [18]. Because of their small size, it is possible for Vh antibodies to potentially target some epitopes that are inaccessible to larger antibody fragments [10]. 

Note dAb single domain antibody FW fresh weight TSP total soluble protein. 

Els Conrath K., Lauwereys M., Wyns L., and Muyldermans S., Camel single-domain antibodies as modular building units in bispecific and bivalent antibody constructs, J. Biol. Chem., 276(10), 7346-7350, 2001. 

Stijiemans B, Coniath K, Cortez-Retamozo V et al. Effident taigeting of conserved cryptic epitopes of infectious agents by single domain antibodies African trypanosomes as paradigm. J Biol Chem 2004 279 1256-1261. 

L. Ratier, M. Unutia, G. Paris, L. Zarebski, A. C. Fiaseh, and F. A. Goldbaum, Relevance of die diversity among members of die Trypanosoma cruzi trans-sialidase femily analyzed widi eamehds single-domain antibodies, PLoS ONE, 3 (2008) e3524. 

Muyldermans, S. (2013). Nanobodies Natural single-domain antibodies. Annual Review of Biochemistry, 82, 775-797. http //dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-biochem-063011-... 

Utilization of antibody fragments (Fab. Fab ), bispecific antibodies, and single-chain and single-domain antibodies (tailored through genetic engineering and its expression in bacteria)... 

Single-domain antibodies (sdAbs), otherwise called nanobodies, are recombinant, in vitro-selected fragments, and include the Vh and Vl domains of conventional antibodies, the Vhh domain from cameftdae species heavy-chain antibodies, and the vNAR domain (similar to Vhh) from cartilaginous shark antibodies. These sdAbs constitute the smallest... 

---