Therapeutic antibodies are widely used in biotherapeutics due to their unique antigen specificity and versatility against various disease targets. There is growing interest in using antibody fragments as therapeutics because their small size allows for better tumor penetration and cost-effective production. However, their small size also leads to rapid clearance (7-20 hours in humans), reducing their efficacy. Therefore, there is a need for new compositions and methods to overcome these limitations and enhance the effectiveness of small antibody therapeutics.
This technology is a method to extend the circulation half-life of antibody fragments. This approach is based on novel short peptides that mimic the functionality of FcRn binding domains (allowing transcytosis and recycling) without significantly increasing the size of the antibody fragment. Extending the half-life of antibody fragments from hours to weeks increases their theaputic potential in cancer treatment.
Publication
Short FcRn-Binding Peptides Enable Salvage and Transcytosis of scFv Antibody Fragments. Vince W. Kelly and Shannon J. Sirk. ACS Chemical Biology 2022 17 (2), 404-413 DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.1c00862