Made in Russia: the world's largest antibody library
MEGAN LIB – the largest library of human antibodies created in Russia
The press service of the company "Biocad"
Russia has created the largest and most diverse library of human antibodies in the world. It includes blood samples from over a thousand donors (MeganlibTM). Researchers of the biotech corporation BIOCAD have been collecting the library since 2012. The antibody genes stored here serve to create a new generation of drugs for cancer, autoimmune and other diseases. First of all, these are preparations based on bispecific monoclonal antibodies, which the world's leading scientists are currently working on.
The library is a repository containing billions of genes of various antibodies, each of which is individual and capable of binding to a specific target molecule. There are three types of antibody libraries: naive, consisting of human donor samples, synthetic, that is, synthesized de novo from oligonucleotides, and immune, derived from animal blood. MEGAN LIB the library of monoclonal antibodies belongs to the first type and it was created in a special format for the selection of antibodies by the phage display method. The probability of effective and safe treatment with drugs developed on the basis of antibodies obtained from donor human libraries is higher than in the case of synthetic or humanized antibodies.
Libraries of human antibodies number about a dozen donors, in rare cases – up to several hundred, for example, in companies such as Pfizer and Medimmune. MorphoSys has constructed several libraries with a wide variety of materials, but the samples in them are synthetic. BIOCAD also has the largest and most diverse library of antibodies generated by the human immune system in the world. Now the company is working with a library of 1100 donors, and in the next six months it plans to complete the collection of samples, increasing their number to 2000.
Antibody testing is carried out in special robotic stations. On average, up to 100 thousand samples are processed during the day. The collection and maintenance of such an antibody library (MeganLiB) is a technically complex and time–consuming procedure. The process of maintaining and replenishing the BIOCAD library of human antibodies is handled by employees of three laboratories.
Information about each sample is necessarily recorded in electronic accounting logs, as well as displayed in protocols that are filled out by responsible laboratory staff after each stage of work with the library. The library materials are stored at low temperatures in refrigerators in the following formats: lysed fraction of peripheral blood mononuclear cells, RNA and cDNA. RNA and cDNA are stored as two aliquots.
The variety of materials in the library allows you to find the right antibodies for target molecules on the surface of a cancer cell. From a huge number of antibodies, researchers select only a few dozen molecules that can neutralize a protein that promotes the development of cancer or activate the body's immune cells to destroy the tumor. In this way, innovative drugs are being developed.
The library looks like a small two-milliliter tube with liquid, it nevertheless contains the full power of the immune system of thousands of people, in the form of hundreds of billions of different genes encoding the so-called Fab fragments of antibodies.
The main need to create such a diverse donor library is a large repertoire of various structural variants. This significantly increases the likelihood of creating a drug with the desired therapeutic properties. The development of drugs based on monoclonal antibodies is one of the most relevant and complex technologies of modern pharmaceuticals. According to statistics, every third person suffers from some kind of malignant neoplasm. Monoclonal antibodies target cancer cells, having minimal effect on healthy ones, unlike the same chemotherapeutic drugs.
The MEGANLIB library of human antibodies is used in all BIOCAD projects, primarily in the development of innovative drugs under the MabNext program. Now the company is conducting more than twenty projects. The value of this particular library lies in its versatility, thanks to it, scientists can find an antibody for any target that interests them. They may also be targets for the treatment of infectious diseases. In addition, the detected antibodies that specifically bind to markers of various diseases can be used in diagnostics. Perhaps in the future, the genetic material of immune system cells collected in the MEGANLIB library may be needed in the field of basic research to create a database of antibodies and genes.
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23.11.2015