title: [Heavy-chain antibodies of the Camelidae and their possible applications].
abstract: The immunoglobulins of the Camelidae family belonging to subclasses IgG2 and IgG3 consist of heavy chains only. The lack of light chains is caused by a point mutation in the heavy-chain gene, resulting in the loss of the splice consensus signal and the removal of the entire CH1 domain together with introns. The heavy-chains antibodies also contain longer hinge regions and conservative amino-acid substitutions in the framework regions. Despite the lack of light chains, the heavy-chain antibodies reveal normal antigen binding ability and effector functions. The heavy-chain antibodies are relatively easy to clone and possess good stability, high specificity, low molecular weight, and the ability to recognize unique epitopes. Possible areas of application of heavy-chain antibodies include their use as in vivo imaging reagents and sources of peptide-based drugs.
authors.affiliation: Zakład Immunochemii Instytutu Immunologii i Terapii Doświadczalnej PAN im. Ludwika Hirszfelda, Wrocław. czerwins@immuno.iitd.pan.wroc.pl
authors.forename: Marcin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Czerwiński
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Krop-Watorek
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002161:Camelids, New World / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D019151:Peptide Library; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D019151:Peptide Library