<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Neuroinfections are difficult and time-consuming to treat. The main bottleneck in therapy is drugs’ inability to enter the central nervous system (CNS) via the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Because the diffusion of conventional antibodies in tissues is limited by their large size (150 kDa), it is necessary to find an antibody fragment that can cross the BBB and treat CNS infections. Camelid heavy chain only antibodies, also known as nanobodies, possess a unique Variable domain of a Heavy chain (VHH). The VHH could be used as an alternative to conventional antibodies and have enormous potential in a wide range of medical and bio-technology fields. The VHH with an average molecular weight of 15 kDa can diffuse nearly four times better in tissues and tumours than common antibodies. A VHH is made up of four framework regions (FR1‒4) and three hypervariable complementarity-determining regions (CDR1‒3), with CDR3 being particularly important in interaction with pathogen epitopes. Experimental results have shown that the CDR3 domain alone can bind to epitopes and may contribute to reduce the size of the antigen-recognizing molecule, allowing it to be used more effectively to diffuse much better in tissues, and as well as to cross the BBB and biodistributed in CNS.</p>
</abstract>

Neuroinfections are difficult and time-consuming to treat. The main bottleneck in therapy is drugs’ inability to enter the central nervous system (CNS) via the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Because the diffusion of conventional antibodies in tissues is limited by their large size (150 kDa), it is necessary to find an antibody fragment that can cross the BBB and treat CNS infections. Camelid heavy chain only antibodies, also known as nanobodies, possess a unique Variable domain of a Heavy chain (VHH). The VHH could be used as an alternative to conventional antibodies and have enormous potential in a wide range of medical and bio-technology fields. The VHH with an average molecular weight of 15 kDa can diffuse nearly four times better in tissues and tumours than common antibodies. A VHH is made up of four framework regions (FR1‒4) and three hypervariable complementarity-determining regions (CDR1‒3), with CDR3 being particularly important in interaction with pathogen epitopes. Experimental results have shown that the CDR3 domain alone can bind to epitopes and may contribute to reduce the size of the antigen-recognizing molecule, allowing it to be used more effectively to diffuse much better in tissues, and as well as to cross the BBB and biodistributed in CNS.

Complementarity-Determining Region 3 (CDR3) of the Heavy Chain Only Antibodies: Therapeutic Perspectives

Laboratory of Biomedical Microbiology and Immunology

University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Košice

Folia Veterinaria

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Neuroinfections are difficult and time-consuming to treat. The main bottleneck in therapy is drugs’ inability to enter the central nervous system (CNS) via the...

Complementarity-Determining Region 3 (CDR3) of the Heavy Chain Only Antibodies: Therapeutic Perspectives

Published Online: Jun 27, 2024

Page range: 64 - 71

Received: Apr 04, 2024

Accepted: May 21, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/fv-2024-0019

Keywords
blood-brain barrier, CDR3, central nervous system, nanobody, neuroinfections

© 2024 Lea Talpašová et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Complementarity-Determining Region 3 (CDR3) of the Heavy Chain Only Antibodies: Therapeutic Perspectives

Published Online: Jun 27, 2024

Page range: 64 - 71

Received: Apr 04, 2024

Accepted: May 21, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/fv-2024-0019

Keywordsblood-brain barrier, CDR3, central nervous system, nanobody, neuroinfections

© 2024 Lea Talpašová et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
blood-brain barrier, CDR3, central nervous system, nanobody, neuroinfections