PREPARATION AND USE OF GENE BANKS OF SYNTHETIC HUMAN ANTIBODIES ('SYNTHETIC HUMAN-ANTIBODY LIBRARIES')

摘要

The invention relates to the preparation and use of genebanks of synthetic human antibodies (huAb) or parts ofantibodies which contain the antigen-binding domain.Starting from a huAb framework in a suitable vector, thehypervariable regions of the antibody cDNA are formed byalmost "randomly" combined oligonucleotides. Relativelyconserved amino acids in the hypervariable regions havehere been taken account of in the choice of appropriatenucleotides during the oligonucleotide synthesis and theratio of the nucleotides used is likewise chosen suchthat a nonsense codon is to be expected at most in every89th position. Expression of this synthetic huAb cDNA inmicrobial expression systems, e.g. in E, coli in thevector pFMT which is described below, thus makes asynthetic huAb library with a comprehensive repertoirefor screening using selected antigens available in vitro.