Nanobodies^®: proficient tools in diagnostics

Abstract

With the advent of new antibody engineering technologies, conventional antibodies have been minimized into smaller antibody formats. Small size is an important advantage for current and future diagnostic development. Nanobodies^® (Ablynx) are among the smallest known antigen-binding antibody fragments, and are derived from the heavy-chain only antibodies that occur naturally in the serum of Camelidae. Endowed by natural evolution, these Nanobodies inherently exhibit unique biophysical, biochemical and pharmacological characteristics. In addition to their excellent potential as molecules in drug development, Nanobodies possess very attractive functional properties that aid in their development for diagnostic tools. Here we present several examples of currently available applications of Nanobodies to the field of immunosensor for cancer, immunoaffinity chromatography, in vivo and intracellular imaging.

Keywords::

• antibody engineering
• biosensor
• camelid
• diagnostic tool
• immunodiagnostics
• llama
• molecular imaging
• monoclonal antibody
• Nanobody^®

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.