Healthcare and Apheresis at Peptalk 2006

At CHI's Peptalk 2006 held in San Diego, Professor Theo Verrips presented a poster on the use of Camelid antibody fragments in Healthcare and Apheresis applications. As a joint collaboration between the University of Utrecht and BAC the poster describes the development of an immuno-affinity chromatographic approach to remove the causative components for sepsis and IgG of two auto-immune diseases, Goodpasture and Systemic lupus erythematosus.

Results are shown for the selection of VHH ligands against a number of components in blood, like IgGs [recognizing all subtypes] and against causative molecules of sepsis, like the superantigen toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 [TSST] and Lipopolysaccharide [LPS]. Subsequently we have coupled these VHHs to matrices and tested the performance of the immuno-affinity columns.

 

It was concluded that the variable domains of Camelid antibodies can be selected efficiently. The subsequent screenings procedures were carried out under conditions relevant for the final application. This resulted in large sets of VHH against LPS and TSST-1, both important causative agents of sepsis and their application to remove these components from blood are promising. We demonstrated that IgGs related to auto-immune diseases can be removed from plasma very specifically.