Single domain antibodies from camel: Research advances / 国际药学研究杂志

Camelidae possess special type of antibody, namely heavy-chain antibody. It consists of a homodimer comprising three domains: CH2, CH3 and one variable region of heavy chain (VH), but CH1 and light chain are absent. The VH of heavy-chain antibody is named nanobody. Compared to the traditional antibody, nanobody has many advantages. For example it has small molecular weight, better stability and can cross blood brain barrier(BBB). More and more application of nanobodies have been reported in scientific fields, such as biological detection, diagnosis, and pharmacy. In this paper we review structural characteristics and physicochemical properties of nanobodies, and investigate their development in biomedicine researches as well.