title: Nanobodies as Versatile Tools to Understand, Diagnose, Visualize and Treat Cancer.
abstract: Since their discovery, nanobodies have been used extensively in the fields of research, diagnostics and therapy. These antigen binding fragments, originating from Camelid heavy-chain antibodies, possess unusual hallmarks in terms of (small) size, stability, solubility and specificity, hence allowing cost-effective production and sometimes outperforming monoclonal antibodies. In this review, we evaluate the current status of nanobodies to study, diagnose, visualize or inhibit cancer-specific proteins and processes. Nanobodies are highly adaptable tools for cancer research as they enable specific modulation of targets, enzymatic and non-enzymatic proteins alike. Molecular imaging studies benefit from the rapid, homogeneous tumor accumulation of nanobodies and their fast blood clearance, permitting previously unattainable fast tumor visualization. Moreover, they are endowed with considerable therapeutic potential as inhibitors of receptor-ligand pairs and deliverers of drugs or drug-loaded nanoparticles towards tumors. More in vivo and clinical studies are however eagerly awaited to unleash their full potential.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium.
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Van Audenhove
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium. Electronic address: jan.gettemans@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gettemans
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D003287:Contrast Media / Q000737:chemistry; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D000072417:Protein Domains / Q000276:immunology; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D061905:Single-Domain Antibodies / Q000276:immunology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D003287:Contrast Media; D004337:Drug Carriers; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface; D061905:Single-Domain Antibodies
keywords: Cancer; Heavy chain antibody; Nanobody; Single domain antibody; VHH