Skip to content
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
VHH, bivalent domains and chimeric Heavy chain-only antibodies with high neutralizing efficacy for scorpion toxin AahI′
Molecular Immunology, Volume 45, No. 14, Year 2008
Notification
URL copied to clipboard!
Description
Many efforts aim at solving the serious problems encountered with immunotherapy against scorpion envenoming. The most attractive approach consists in generating single-chain antibody fragments (scFv) as their pharmaco-kinetic properties should match closely those of the scorpion toxins. Although high affinity scFv reagents have been generated in the past, their production level, stability, and toxin neutralizing capacity remain disappointingly poor. In the current study, we identified one Nanobody (Nb), a single-domain antigen-binding fragment of a dromedary Heavy-chain antibody (HCAb) that recognizes specifically the Androctonus australis hector AahI′ toxin. This Nb has excellent production, stability and solubility characteristics. With this Nb we further manufactured a tandem linked bivalent construct and assembled a HCAb with improved antigen binding due to avidity effects. All these constructs were shown in mouse models to possess a scorpion toxin neutralization capacity that exceeds by far all previous attempts with scFv-based materials, even when used at lower doses. It is therefore clear that in the near future Nanobodies will be at the core of novel serotherapeutics as they combine multiple benefits over other reagents to treat scorpion envenomed patients. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors & Co-Authors
Hmila, Issam
Tunisia, Tunis
Institut Pasteur de Tunis
Abdallah R, Ben Abderrazek Ben
Tunisia, Tunis
Institut Pasteur de Tunis
Saerens, Dirk
Belgium, Brussels
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Belgium, Ghent
Vlaams Instituut Voor Biotechnologie
Benlasfar, Zakaria
Tunisia, Tunis
Institut Pasteur de Tunis
Conrath, Katja Els
Belgium, Brussels
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Belgium, Ghent
Vlaams Instituut Voor Biotechnologie
El-Ayeb, Mohamed E.
Tunisia, Tunis
Institut Pasteur de Tunis
Muyldermans, Serge
Belgium, Brussels
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Belgium, Ghent
Vlaams Instituut Voor Biotechnologie
Bouhaouala-Zahar, Balkiss
Tunisia, Tunis
Institut Pasteur de Tunis
Tunisia, Tunis
Faculté de Médecine de Tunis
Statistics
Citations: 134
Authors: 8
Affiliations: 4
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1016/j.molimm.2008.04.011
Research Areas
Cancer