Introduction: Antibody Structure and Function

Antibodies, a central part of humoral immunity, have increasingly become a dominant class of biotherapeutics in clinical development and are approved for use in patients. As with any successful endeavor, the history of monoclonal antibody therapeutics benefited from the pioneering work of many, such as Paul Ehrlich who in the late nineteenth century demonstrated that serum components had the ability to protect the host by “passive vaccination” [1], the seminal invention of monoclonal antibody generation using hybridoma technology by Kohler and Milstein [2], and the advent of recombinant technologies that sought to reduce the murine content in therapeutic antibodies [3]. During the process of generation of humoral immunity, the B-cell receptor (BCR) is formed by recombination between variable (V), diversity (D), and joining (J) exons, which define the antigen recognition element. This is combined with an immunoglobulin (Ig) constant domain element (m for IgM, d for IgD, c for IgG (gamma immunoglobulin), a for IgA, and e for IgE) that defines the isotype of the molecule. Sequences for these V, D, J, and constant domain genes for disparate organisms can be found through the International ImMunoGeneTics Information System [4]. The different Ig subtypes are presented at different points during B-cell maturation. For instance, all naïve B cells express IgM and IgD, with IgM being the first secreted molecule. As the B cells mature and undergo class switching, a majority of them secrete either IgG or IgA, which are the most abundant class of Ig in plasma. Characteristics like high neutralizing and recruitment of effector mechanisms, high affinity, and long resident half-life in plasma make the IgG isotype an ideal candidate for generation of therapeutic antibodies. Within the IgG isotype, there are four subtypes (IgG1–IgG4) with differing properties (Table 1.1). Most of the currently marketed IgGs are of the subtype IgG1 (Table 1.2). 1