Zarebski Laura M, Urrutia Mariela, Goldbaum Fernando A
Fundación Instituto Leloir, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
J Mol Biol. 2005 Jun 17;349(4):814-24. doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2005.03.072. Epub 2005 Apr 21.
In camelids, a subset of the immunoglobulins consists of heavy-chain homodimers devoid of light chains, and are thus called heavy-chain IgGs (hcIgGs). Their variable region (VHH) is the smallest antigen-binding fragment possible, and being just one polypeptide chain it is especially suitable for engineering. In particular, camelid single domain antibodies might be very useful for molecular mimicry and anti-idiotypic vaccination. In the present work, we show that llamas immunized with an anti-DNA mouse mAb develop an important anti-Id response. Selection of VHHs by phage display, with specific elution of bound phages with the external antigenic DNA, shows that selected private anti-Id VHHs compete for binding to the external antigen and bear a functional mimicry of the DNA. These results indicate that llama anti-Id single domain antibodies would be an excellent tool for molecular mimicry studies.
在骆驼科动物中，一部分免疫球蛋白由不含轻链的重链同型二聚体组成，因此被称为重链IgG（hcIgG）。它们的可变区（VHH）是可能的最小抗原结合片段，由于只是一条多肽链，所以特别适合进行工程改造。特别是，骆驼科动物单域抗体可能对分子模拟和抗独特型疫苗接种非常有用。在本研究中，我们表明用抗DNA小鼠单克隆抗体免疫的美洲驼产生了重要的抗独特型反应。通过噬菌体展示选择VHH，并使用外部抗原性DNA特异性洗脱结合的噬菌体，结果表明所选的私有抗独特型VHH竞争与外部抗原的结合，并具有DNA的功能模拟。这些结果表明，美洲驼抗独特型单域抗体将是分子模拟研究的优秀工具。
