Department of Cancer Immunology and Virology, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Institute of Innate Immunity, University of Bonn, 53127 Bonn, Germany.
Annu Rev Immunol. 2018 Apr 26;36:695-715. doi: 10.1146/annurev-immunol-042617-053327. Epub 2018 Feb 28.
The unique class of heavy chain-only antibodies, present in Camelidae, can be shrunk to just the variable region of the heavy chain to yield VHHs, also called nanobodies. About one-tenth the size of their full-size counterparts, nanobodies can serve in applications similar to those for conventional antibodies, but they come with a number of signature advantages that find increasing application in biology. They not only function as crystallization chaperones but also can be expressed inside cells as such, or fused to other proteins to perturb the function of their targets, for example, by enforcing their localization or degradation. Their small size also affords advantages when applied in vivo, for example, in imaging applications. Here we review such applications, with particular emphasis on those areas where conventional antibodies would face a more challenging environment.
重链抗体是一类独特的抗体，仅存在于骆驼科动物体内，可以进一步缩小为仅包含重链可变区的 VH H 段，也被称为纳米抗体。纳米抗体的大小约为全尺寸抗体的十分之一，可用于与传统抗体相似的应用，但具有许多独特的优势，在生物学领域的应用越来越广泛。它们不仅可以作为结晶伴侣，还可以在细胞内表达，或者与其他蛋白质融合，以干扰其靶标的功能，例如通过强制其定位或降解。当应用于体内时，它们的小尺寸也具有优势，例如在成像应用中。本文综述了这些应用，特别强调了在传统抗体面临更具挑战性的环境的那些领域。
