The human immune system produces antibodies to fight infection and protect against disease. Antibodies are extremely specific and have high affinity for their targets, such as viruses and bacteria. Antibodies can also be targeted to clinically important proteins, and consequently are the fastest growing class of protein therapeutics.

What Is an Antibody?

Antibodies are proteins consisting of two large identical "heavy" chains and two smaller identical "light" chains, arranged in a conserved "Y-shaped" structure (see figure at right). Although antibodies all have the same general conformation, the small regions at the end of the heavy and light chains are extremely variable, creating a novel structure that is uniquely specific for a given antibody, allowing it to bind its specific target molecule. The immune system produces millions of different antibodies, each with a different variable region, which allows the immune system to recognize a large diversity of targets.

Antibodies as Therapeutics for Human Disease

By combining superior specificity, affinity, stability, and pharmacokinetics, antibodies are uniquely suited for use as protein therapeutics. In addition, therapeutic antibodies take advantage of the natural mechanisms employed by the human immune system for target neutralization and elimination.

Antibodies can disrupt inappropriate cell signaling events in many different diseases, such as metabolic, muscle, cardiovascular and bone diseases, inflammation and autoimmunity, or chronic pain. Antibodies can also directly target harmful tumor cells or infectious disease organisms for destruction and removal.

Through the use of VelocImmune and VelociMab technologies, fully-human, monoclonal antibody therapeutics can be created against many different targets for use in treatment of human disease.