In contrast to antibodies used in cancer therapeutics, which aim to stimulate an immune attack, therapeutic antibodies for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases are designed to do the opposite: neutralizing antibodies bind to pro-inflammatory factors and prevent them from exacerbating the immune response. Two recently published studies developed antibodies to minimize FcR-mediated immune responses with the benefit of Gene Synthesis of full-length or truncated DNA sequences encoding immunoglobulin chains, Fc receptors, and other components of inflammatory signaling:
- J Immunol. 2013 Sep. Chimeric Anti-CD14 IGG2/4 Hybrid Antibodies For Therapeutic Intervention In Pig And Human Models of Inflammation. Lau et al. designed chimeric anti-CD14 antibodies containing the IgG2/IgG4 hybrid Fc region, which minimizes FcγR binding and complement activation and makes these Abs suitable for therapeutic intervention in pig and human models of inflammation. In order to construct and characterize these Abs, they used Gene Synthesis of truncated gene sequences encoding FcRn as part of their rigorous testing of this new antibody's effects on Fc-mediated immune responses.
- MAbs. 2013 May. Autoantibody Depletion Ameliorates Disease In Murine Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis. Challa et al. used FcRn-binding antibodies to enhance degradation of autoantibodies and ameliorate disease in the murine experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) model of multiple sclerosis (MS). Autoantibodies are a hallmark of MS and other autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, and signaling through FcR regulates T-cell activation by self-peptides and generation of autoantibodies. To produce their desired recombinant IgG expression constructs, they ordered Gene Synthesis of specific heavy- and light-chain variable domains.
- BMC Immunol. 2012 Apr. Prevalence of Collagen VII-specific Autoantibodies In Patients With Autoimmune And Inflammatory Diseases. Licarete et al. ordered gene synthesis of a sequence encoding a chimeric protein that enables a new, sensitive, specific ELISA immunoassay to detect collagen-specific antibodies. This tool will improve the routine diagnosis and disease monitoring in patients as well as supporting future clinical and translational research.