Generation of the single chain antibody fragment conserves the idiotypic profile of the anti-CD30 monoclonal antibody HRS3.

Recombinant single chain antibody fragments (scFv) derived by combining immunoglobulin VL and VH regions provide valuable antibody-like reagents. A number of them are shown to have retained the antigen specificity of the parental monoclonal antibody (MoAb). Little is known about the idiotypic profile of scFv fragments compared with that of the parental MoAb. To address this question we analysed the idiotypic profile of a scFv that was derived by phage-display techniques from the anti-CD30 MoAb HRS3. We assayed (i) binding of HRS3-scFv to recombinant CD30-Fc antigen and to four different anti-idiotypic MoAbs defining at least three different idiotopes on HRS3, and (ii) cross-competition with the parental MoAb HRS3 and the closely related anti-CD30 MoAb HRS4. The assays revealed that the HRS3-scFv fragment exhibits the same specificity for both CD30 antigen and the tested anti-idiotypic MoAbs compared with the parental MoAb demonstrating that the recombinant scFv fragment has retained the complete idiotope of the parental MoAb.