Application of nanobodies in medical and applied sciences

Abstract

Nanobodies are antigen specific, recombinant, single domain, variable fragments of Camelide heavy chain only antibodies, which are able to bind specific antigen. They are considered as smallest naturally derived antigen-antibody fragment. The supremacy of nanobodies over antibodies is their minimal size, great stability, reversible refolding and high solubility in aqueous solution. Nanobodies, because of small size might be considered as magic bullets of molecular imaging in the near future, especially oncologic imaging. Construction of nanobodies involves stages such as immunisation, isolation and cloning and genetic engineering. Nanobodies are mainly used for the molecular imaging application. Apart from molecular imaging it will also used for development of biological sensors and clinical applications in viral infections, atherosclerosis etc. Therapeutic applications of nanobodies includes; inhibition of tumour cell proliferation, binding and intracellular routing of nanobody albumin nanoparticles, nanobullets-nanobody coupled liposomes for treating angiogenesis and tumour, nanobodies against infection, nanobodies against pathogens and cancer. Drug loaded nanobodies are also used as a novel drug delivery system. In the future more targets and their corresponding nanobodies would be identified. Furthermore, future clinical research should investigate the application value of nanobodies. Properties of nanobodies like high resistance to pH and heat, refolding capacity, high solubility, high stability etc make them more prominent than antibodies. Considering all these aspects, nanobodies appear to be a promising method of tumour targeting therapy and diagnosis.