Abstract
The immune response to an antigen can be considered to occur in two stages. In the initial stage, low-affinity antibodies are generated from an existing pool of the B-cell repertoires available at the time of immunization. In the second stage, which is driven by antigen stimulation, high-affinity antibodies are produced as a result of affinity maturation, starting with the light- and heavy-chain variable region (VL and VH) genes selected in the primary response. The mechanism for affinity maturation consists of somatic hypermutation of V-region genes followed by clonal selection of B-cells that produce antibodies of the highest affinity. Recent advances in phage-displayed antibody technology have enabled the affinity maturation process to be mimicked in vitro to improve the antigen-binding affinity and even alter the binding specificity of recombinant antibodies (1–6).
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© 2004 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ
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Fujii, I. (2004). Antibody Affinity Maturation by Random Mutagenesis. In: Lo, B.K.C. (eds) Antibody Engineering. Methods in Molecular Biology™, vol 248. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-666-5:345
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-666-5:345
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