Nanobodies Enhancing Cancer Visualization, Diagnosis and Therapeutics

Abstract

Worldwide, cancer is a serious health concern due to the increasing rates of incidence and mortality. Conventional cancer imaging, diagnosis and treatment practices continue to substantially contribute to the fight against cancer. However, these practices do have some risks, adverse effects and limitations, which can affect patient outcomes. Although antibodies have been developed, successfully used and proven beneficial in various oncology practices, the use of antibodies also comes with certain challenges and limitations (large in size, poor tumor penetration, high immunogenicity and a long half-life). Therefore, it is vital to develop new ways to visualize, diagnose and treat cancer. Nanobodies are novel antigen-binding fragments that possess many advantageous properties (small in size, low immunogenicity and a short half-life). Thus, the use of nanobodies in cancer practices may overcome the challenges experienced with using traditional antibodies. In this review, we discuss (1) the challenges with antibody usage and the superior qualities of nanobodies; (2) the use of antibodies and nanobodies in cancer imaging, diagnosis, drug delivery and therapy (surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and immunotherapy); and (3) the potential improvements in oncology practices due to the use of nanobodies as compared to antibodies.

The Potential of Nanobodies for COVID-19 Diagnostics and Therapeutics

“…Although Abs may be beneficial, some limitations and challenges are experienced with the use of Abs (large size, fragile, elevated immunogenicity) (Fig. 2 ) [ 72 ].

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“…Nanobodies (VHH or Nbs) are small monomeric antigen-binding fragments generated from heavy chain-only Abs that are present in camelids [ 72 ]. There are several advantages of Nbs, for example low toxicity, high affinity, sensitivity, water solubility, effortless production, prolonged shelf life, and many more (Fig.…”

“…There are several advantages of Nbs, for example low toxicity, high affinity, sensitivity, water solubility, effortless production, prolonged shelf life, and many more (Fig. 3 ) [ 72 ].

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A Nanobody-Based Toolset to Monitor and Modify the Mitochondrial GTPase Miro1

“…Here, the use of single-domain antibody fragments, also known as nanobodies (Nbs) derived from heavy chain-only antibodies found in camelids or sharks ( Hamers-Casterman et al, 1993 ; Greenberg et al, 1995 ), could be advantageous due to their unique binding properties and versatile formats. During the last decade Nbs have been established as attractive alternatives to conventional antibodies for a multitude of biochemical assays ( Rothbauer et al, 2008 ; Cheloha et al, 2020 ; He et al, 2021 ; Wagner et al, 2021 ) and advanced imaging applications [reviewed in ( Traenkle and Rothbauer, 2017 ; Hrynchak et al, 2021 ; Naidoo and Chuturgoon, 2021 )]. Additionally, their small size, high solubility and stability qualify Nbs for intracellular expression [reviewed in ( Helma et al, 2015 ; Wagner and Rothbauer, 2020 )].…”

Recent Advance in Tumor Microenvironment-Based Stimuli-Responsive Nanoscale Drug Delivery and Imaging Platform

“…These also lead to many systemic side effects such as 1) although cancer resection greatly prolongs patients' survival time, it reduces the survival quality (Nam and Shin, 2021); 2) chemotherapy drug is known to have adverse side effects such as drug resistance, nonspecific toxicity, and short circulating half-life (YAN et al, 2020); 3) in view of the conventional radiotherapy with many restrictions lead to long-term destruction of normal organ functions as well as the immune system (Zhang et al, 2019). In consequence, novel and efficient therapeutic methods (Naidoo and Chuturgoon, 2021) with fewer side effects, high efficiency, and low toxicity still urgently need to be explored.…”