title: VHH antibodies: emerging reagents for the analysis of environmental chemicals.
abstract: A VHH antibody (or nanobody) is the antigen binding fragment of heavy chain only antibodies. Discovered nearly 25 years ago, they have been investigated for their use in clinical therapeutics and immunodiagnostics, and more recently for environmental monitoring applications. A new and valuable immunoreagent for the analysis of small molecular weight environmental chemicals, VHH will overcome many pitfalls encountered with conventional reagents. In the work so far, VHH antibodies often perform comparably to conventional antibodies for small molecule analysis, are amenable to numerous genetic engineering techniques, and show ease of adaption to other immunodiagnostic platforms for use in environmental monitoring. Recent reviews cover the structure and production of VHH antibodies as well as their use in clinical settings. However, no report focuses on the use of these VHH antibodies to detect small environmental chemicals (MW < 1500 Da). This review article summarizes the efforts made to produce VHHs to various environmental targets, compares the VHH-based assays with conventional antibody assays, and discusses the advantages and limitations in developing these new antibody reagents particularly to small molecule targets. Graphical Abstract Overview of the production of VHHs to small environmental chemicals and highlights of the utility of these new emerging reagents.
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology and Nematology and UCD Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
authors.forename: Candace S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Bever
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology and Nematology and UCD Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
authors.forename: Jie-Xian
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology and Nematology and UCD Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
authors.forename: Natalia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vasylieva
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology and Nematology and UCD Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
authors.forename: Bogdan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Barnych
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology and Nematology and UCD Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.|Department of Oral Biology, School of Dental Medicine, University of Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, 14214, USA.
authors.forename: Yongliang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology and Nematology and UCD Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
authors.forename: Zhen-Lin
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology and Nematology and UCD Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
authors.forename: Bruce D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Hammock
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology and Nematology and UCD Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616, USA. sjgee@ucdavis.edu.
authors.forename: Shirley J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Gee
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000917:Antibody Formation; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D002161:Camelids, New World / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007118:Immunoassay / Q000379:methods; D007202:Indicators and Reagents; D061905:Single-Domain Antibodies / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D007202:Indicators and Reagents; D061905:Single-Domain Antibodies
keywords: Biosensors; Environmental chemicals; Genetic modifications; Production; Sensitivity; VHH antibodies