In:
eLife, eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd, Vol. 5 ( 2016-07-19)
Abstract:
Antibodies are proteins that form part of an animal’s immune system and can identify and help eradicate infections. These proteins are also needed at many stages in biological research and represent one of the most promising tools in medical applications, from diagnostics to treatments. Traditionally, antibodies have been collected from animals that had been previously injected with a target molecule that the antibodies must recognize. An alternative strategy that uses bacteria and bacteria-infecting viruses instead of animals was developed several decades ago and allows researchers to obtain antibodies more quickly. However, the majority of the scientific community view these “in vitro selected antibodies” as inferior to those produced via the more traditional approach. Moutel, Bery et al. set out to challenge this widespread opinion, using a smaller kind of antibody known as nanobodies. The proteins were originally found in animals like llamas and camels and are now widely used in biological research. One particularly stable nanobody was chosen to form the backbone of the in vitro antibodies, and the DNA that encodes this nanobody was altered to make the protein more similar to human antibodies. Moutel, Bery et al. then changed the DNA sequence further to make billions of different versions of the nanobody, each one slightly different from the next in the region that binds to the target molecules. Transferring this DNA into bacteria resulted in a library (called the NaLi-H1 library) of bacterial clones that produce the nanobodies displayed at the surface of bacteria-infecting viruses. Moutel, Bery et al. then screened this library against various target molecules, including some from tumor cells, and showed that the fully in vitro selected antibodies worked just as well as natural antibodies in a number of assays. The in vitro antibodies could even be used to track, or inactivate, proteins within living cells. The NaLi-H1 library will help other researchers obtain new antibodies that bind strongly to their targets. The approaches developed to create the library could also see more people decide to create their own synthetic libraries, which would accelerate the identification of new antibodies in a way that is cheaper and requires fewer experiments to be done using animals. These in vitro selected antibodies could help to advance both fundamental and medical research.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
2050-084X
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.001
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.002
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.003
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.004
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.005
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.006
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.007
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.008
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.009
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.010
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.011
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.012
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.013
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.014
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.015
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.016
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.017
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.018
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.019
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.020
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.021
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.022
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.023
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.024
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.16228.025
Language:
English
Publisher:
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Publication Date:
2016
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2687154-3
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