Antibody Engineering for Pursuing a Healthier Future

Saeed, Abdullah F. U. H.; Wang, Rongzhi; Ling, Sumei; Wang, Shihua

Similarly, recombinant antibodies have several advantages: (i) bacteria, yeast, plants, or animals can be used to produce antibodies, (ii) no need for immunization, and (iii) intrinsic properties (immunogenicity, binding affinity, pharmacokinetics, specificity, and stability of antibodies) can be modified easily using mutagenesis techniques. Genetically engineered antibodies have integral characteristics that suit various downstream applications or can be converted into functional whole immunoglobulins (Bradbury et al., 2003b) . Antibodies exhibit strong immunity to defend against foreign antigens and non-selfagents. However, a variety of recombinant antibodies is needed to interact these hostile antigens. Over the last decade, the use of antibody engineering or recombinant antibody technology has shaped the genetic manipulation of a diverse range of antibody fragments for research, diagnosis, and therapy (Kontermann and Muller, 1999) . This technology has resulted in better affinity and specificity of manipulated antibody fragments and has facilitated the replacement of hybridoma technology with various display systems for unlimited antibody production against any known antigen (Gram et al., 1992) .