[11] Antibody Engineering and Therapeutics Flashcards
What is antibody engineering?
A field of biotechnology that involves the modification of antibodies to improve their therapeutic properties.
What are antibodies?
Proteins produced by the immune system that bind to specific antigens, aiding in their neutralization or destruction.
What is therapeutic antibody?
An antibody specifically designed to bind to a target that helps treat a specific disease.
What are monoclonal antibodies?
Antibodies that are clones of a unique parent cell and target a specific antigen.
Initials: mAbs
Monoclonal antibodies
What are some applications of antibody engineering?
- Cancer therapy
- Autoimmune disorders
- Infectious diseases
What is antibody humanization?
A process in antibody engineering where non-human antibodies are modified to increase their similarity to human antibodies, reducing immunogenicity.
What is immunogenicity?
The ability of a substance, such as an antigen or a drug, to provoke an immune response.
What is a hybridoma?
A fused cell hybrid that is used in the production of monoclonal antibodies.
What is phage display in antibody engineering?
A technique used to study protein-protein, protein-peptide, and protein-DNA interactions that uses bacteriophages to connect proteins with the genetic information that encodes them.
What is an antigen-binding fragment (Fab)?
A region on an antibody that binds to antigens. It is composed of one constant and one variable domain of each of the heavy and light chain.
Initials: Fab
Antigen-binding fragment
What are bispecific antibodies?
Antibodies that can bind to two different antigens at the same time, allowing them to target multiple disease pathways.
What is the role of therapeutic antibodies in cancer treatment?
They can block certain proteins that cancer cells need to grow, or stimulate the immune system to attack cancer cells.
What is Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs)?
Monoclonal antibodies attached to biologically active drugs used for targeted drug delivery.
Initials: ADCs
Antibody-Drug Conjugates
What is antibody affinity?
The strength of the binding between an antigen and an antibody.
How can antibody affinity be improved?
Through techniques such as site-directed mutagenesis or phage display.
What is an immune checkpoint inhibitor?
A drug that blocks proteins (immune checkpoints) on immune cells that would normally stop these cells from attacking other cells in the body.
How are antibodies produced in the lab?
Typically through hybridoma technology, where B-cells producing desired antibodies are fused with myeloma cells to create a cell line (hybridoma) that produces monoclonal antibodies.
What are polyclonal antibodies?
A mixture of antibodies that recognize different epitopes of a single antigen.
