VHH, bivalent domains and chimeric Heavy chain-only antibodies with high neutralizing efficacy for scorpion toxin AahI′

Issam Hmila; Ben Abderrazek-Ben Abdallah R; Dirk Saerens; Zakaria Benlasfar; Katja Conrath; Mohamed El Ayeb; Serge Muyldermans; Balkiss Bouhaouala-Zahar

VHH, bivalent domains and chimeric Heavy chain-only antibodies with high neutralizing efficacy for scorpion toxin AahI′

Issam Hmila ¹ Ben Abderrazek-Ben Abdallah R ¹ Dirk Saerens ^{2, 3} Zakaria Benlasfar ⁴ Katja Conrath ^{2, 3} Mohamed El Ayeb ¹ Serge Muyldermans ^{2, 3} Balkiss Bouhaouala-Zahar ^{1, 5, *}

* Corresponding author

1 Laboratoire des Venins et Toxines, Institut Pasteur de Tunis

2 VIB - Department of Cellular and Molecular Interactions

3 VUB - Cellular and Molecular Immunology

4 Institut Pasteur de Tunis

5 UTM - Université Tunis El Manar

Abstract : Many efforts aim at solving the serious problems encountered with immunotherapy against scorpion envenoming. The most attractive approach consists in generating single-chain antibody fragments (scFv) as their pharmaco-kinetic properties should match closely those of the scorpion toxins. Although high affinity scFv reagents have been generated in the past, their production level, stability, and toxin neutralizing capacity remain disappointingly poor. In the current study, we identified one Nanobody (Nb), a single-domain antigen-binding fragment of a dromedary Heavy-chain antibody (HCAb) that recognizes specifically the Androctonus australis hector AahI' toxin. This Nb has excellent production, stability and solubility characteristics. With this Nb we further manufactured a tandem linked bivalent construct and assembled a HCAb with improved antigen binding due to avidity effects. All these constructs were shown in mouse models to possess a scorpion toxin neutralization capacity that exceeds by far all previous attempts with scFv-based materials, even when used at lower doses. It is therefore clear that in the near future Nanobodies will be at the core of novel serotherapeutics as they combine multiple benefits over other reagents to treat scorpion envenomed patients. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords : serotherapy dromedary Na+ channel specific toxin toxin scorpion venom nanobody phage display recombinant antibody

Document type :

Journal articles

Domain :

Life Sciences [q-bio]

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https://hal-riip.archives-ouvertes.fr/pasteur-01375223
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Submitted on : Friday, December 16, 2016 - 11:20:29 AM
Last modification on : Monday, October 8, 2018 - 5:44:08 PM

VHH, bivalent domains and chimeric Heavy chain-only antibodies with high neutralizing efficacy for scorpion toxin AahI′

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VHH, bivalent domains and chimeric Heavy chain-only antibodies with high neutralizing efficacy for scorpion toxin AahI′

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