Recombinant antibodies and their applications in biomedicine

Abstract

Recombinant antibodies are increasingly showing potential in the treatment of severe human diseases. This paper aims to provide a general information about recombinant antibodies and some of their applications in biomedicine, especially in the cancer treatment. Recombinant antibodies maintain the antigen-specific binding ability in the same way as monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies, with several additional advantages. The first generation of recombinant antibodies “Fab antibodies” and more formats such as scFv showed high mobility and small structure, with tissue invasion and tumor targeting applications in the cancer immunotherapy and diagnostic imaging. Nanobody represented the smallest type of recombinant antibodies. With excellent tissue distribution, and the blood-brain barrier (BBB) crossing ability, nanobody became an effective tool in the treatment of cancer and neuroinflammatory diseases. Fcab was a recombinant antibody originating from the Fc fragment with antigen-specific binding and immune response stimulating ability and was highly stable in the body. In recent years, most recombinant antibodies have been studied for the application in the delivery and release of cytotoxic drugs by the antibody-drug complex (ADC). With the strong development of gene engineering and immunotherapies, recombinant antibodies are now a potential therapy in the treatment of deadly diseases in humans.