Al Qaraghuli Mohammed M, Ferro Valerie A
Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, UK.
J Mol Recognit. 2017 Apr;30(4). doi: 10.1002/jmr.2592. Epub 2016 Nov 16.
Monoclonal antibodies have revolutionized the biomedical field through their ubiquitous utilization in different diagnostics and therapeutic applications. Despite this widespread use, their large size and structural complexity have limited their versatility in specific applications. The antibody variable region that is responsible for binding antigen is embodied within domains that can be rescued individually as single-domain antibody (sdAb) fragments. Because of the unique characteristics of sdAbs, such as low molecular weight, high physicochemical stability, and the ability to bind antigens inaccessible to conventional antibodies, they represent a viable alternative to full-length antibodies. Consequently, 149 crystal structures of sdAbs, originating from human (VH), camelids (VHH), or sharks (VNAR), were retrieved from the Protein Data Bank, and their structures were compared. The 3 types of sdAbs displayed complementarity determining regions (CDRs) with different lengths and configurations. CDR3 of the VHH and VNAR domains were dominated by pleated and extended orientations, respectively. Although VNAR showed the smallest average molecular weight and molecular surface area compared with VHH and VH antibodies. However, the solvent accessible surface area measurements of the 3 tested sdAbs types were very similar. All the antihapten VHH antibodies showed pleated CDR3, which were sufficient to create a binding pocket to accommodate haptens (methotrexate and azo dyes) in terms of shape and electrostatic potential. The sdAbs that recognized lysozyme showed more diversity in their CDR3 orientation to enable them to recognize various topographies of lysozyme. Subsequently, the three sdAb classes were different in size and surface area and have shown distinguishable ability to optimize their CDR length and orientation to recognize different antigen classes.
单克隆抗体在不同的诊断和治疗应用中广泛使用,给生物医学领域带来了变革。尽管其应用广泛,但由于其较大的尺寸和结构复杂性,在特定应用中的通用性受到限制。负责结合抗原的抗体可变区包含在可单独拯救为单域抗体(sdAb)片段的结构域中。由于sdAb具有独特的特性,如低分子量、高物理化学稳定性以及能够结合传统抗体无法触及的抗原,它们成为全长抗体的可行替代方案。因此,从蛋白质数据库中检索了149个源自人类(VH)、骆驼科动物(VHH)或鲨鱼(VNAR)的sdAb晶体结构,并对其结构进行了比较。这三种类型的sdAb显示出具有不同长度和构型的互补决定区(CDR)。VHH和VNAR结构域的CDR3分别以褶皱和延伸方向为主。尽管与VHH和VH抗体相比,VNAR的平均分子量和分子表面积最小。然而,三种测试的sdAb类型的溶剂可及表面积测量结果非常相似。所有抗半抗原VHH抗体均显示出褶皱状的CDR3,就形状和静电势而言,这些CDR3足以形成一个容纳半抗原(甲氨蝶呤和偶氮染料)的结合口袋。识别溶菌酶的sdAb在其CDR3方向上表现出更多样性,使其能够识别溶菌酶的各种拓扑结构。随后,这三类sdAb在大小和表面积上有所不同,并显示出在优化其CDR长度和方向以识别不同抗原类别的能力上存在差异。