Affinity Maturation And Characterization Of Human Anit-Met Recombinant Antibody

Antibodies are primary tools in three areas - basic research, diagnostics, and molecular therapeutics. The success of anti-tumor necrosis factor in treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, anti-B cell antibodies in the treatment of lymphoma, and antibodies against oncogene products in the treatment of breast cancer and colon cancer are only the few examples of what is emerging as a broad new class of therapeutic agents. The monoclonal antibody market is one of the fastest growing and most lucrative sectors of the pharmaceutical industry, with exceptional 48.1% growth between 2003 and 2004, and has the potential to reach $30 billion by 2010. There are over 200 antibodies in various stages of development driven by technological evolution from chimeric and humanized to fully human antibodies, and oncology products will continue to dominate the market.This project is to develop fully human antibody fragments (scFv and Fab) that specifically bind to cell receptor Met (a proto-oncogene product and a key molecule on tumorgenesis, tumor angiogenesis, invasion and metastasis) by utilizing phage display technology. Our results showed that both anti-Met scFv and Fab antibody fragments recognize Met extracellular domain in native conformation with relatively high affinity. Importantly, these antibody fragments are able to internalize to a variety of Met over-expressed tumor cell...