Polymerizable fab' antibody fragments

摘要

Attachment of antibodies (Ab) or their fragments to synthetic polymer carriers is frequently used in targeted anticancer drug delivery or in the development of novel immunoassys. Several synthetic approaches have been used to covalently bind Ab to synthetic macromolecules, such as the use of reactive polymer precursors or modification of Ab with polymerizable groups followed by copolymerization with a water soluble comonomer. In the latter method functional groups (e.g., N~#epsilon#-amino groups of lysine residues) are reacted with a suitable vinyl monomer to form an Ab containing macromonomer. However, the presence of multiple reactive groups per Ab molecule results in Ab molecules with varying degree of modification. Consequently, it is difficult to control the size and composition of copolymers containing Ab macromonomer units and alternative synthetic pathways have to be chosen. The use of Fab' fragment to produce macromonomers may be one of the solutions. The structure of Fab' provides the possibility to modify the unique -SH group located near the C-terminal.