Tell us about your project!
Immunoglobulin repertoires in blood are extremely complex and it is impossible to monitor individual clones. Right? NO! We have developed a methodology using FabALACTICA to generate profiles of IgG1 Fabs from human plasma samples. The specificity for IgG1 allowed for use in combination with less specific other parts of the protocol. We found that the human IgG1 repertoire is dominated by only ‘a few’ (tens up to hundreds) of clones. This is a lot less than the potential and expected millions or even billions.
At its current state the approach has shown that each donor has a unique repertoire, and that it may change over time in case of physiological changes, i.e. a sepsis episode. But we have also shown that in absence of such changes, the profile remains largely stable for at least 2 months! Thus largely exceeding the IgG1 half-life.
How did SmartEnzymes enhance your project?
In addition to the knowledge we can gain on antibody biology in vivo using FabALACTICA, we also succeeded in deriving the protein sequence of one of the detected clones. This is an additional huge advantage of the ability to ‘see’ individual clones. Many more biological and technological angles will be worked on with this technology. Stay tuned!
