Antibodies are proteins in the immune system produced by B cells, a type of white blood cell. When an antigen or foreign substance enters your body, the immune system detects and uses antibodies to attack and eliminate them. So, your body needs the correct supply of antibodies to enhance the immune system.

However, natural antibody formation in the body can take a while leading to antibody deficiency. For research and therapeutic purposes, antibodies may be required on a large scale, which is only possible through synthetic antibodies. Additionally, specific antibodies are necessary to fight certain antigens, which necessitates the use of customized antibodies. As a result, custom antibody services have come up to offer tailor-made antibodies.

Since their discovery, custom antibodies, set to hit $716.51 Million by 2028, have been a game changer in the healthcare industry, from research to therapeutic applications. That’s because it produces high-quality antibodies that help meet specific needs.

If you are curious about the benefits of custom antibody services, this guide provides you with all you need.

Antibody Production Process in the Body

To appreciate custom antibody production services, you must first understand natural antibody production. The process of antibody production begins when the immune system detects antigens or foreign substances. Specialized cells respond by capturing the foreign molecules, breaking them down, and presenting them to B-cell lymphocytes.

Contact between B cells and antigens triggers Somatic Hypermutation. This is the formation of a new antibody with a unique part called a paratope or Antigen Binding Site. This small part of the antibody can bind to the antigens’ epitope.

Each B cell produces an antigen-specific antibody that recognizes and responds to the antigen’s epitope. Before release into the bloodstream, the coding of the antibodies happens to ensure high specificity to the epitope.

Once in the bloodstream, the antibodies bind with the intruders allowing the body to attack and eliminate the foreign molecules. After, the B cells are retained in the bloodstream to produce more antibodies, which will enable the body to respond to similar threats.

Custom Antibody Production

Custom antibody production is the process of making specific antibodies in the lab. It starts with injecting antigens samples into clinical research animals. This will trigger their bodies to respond by producing antigen-specific antibodies, which can be harvested from the animals and screened for specificity.

The process is complex, and several factors can go wrong during production. Successful custom antibody production depends on using reputable custom antibody services with expertise and specialized equipment. Such companies can carefully plan and carry out the production to produce particular and sensitive antibodies to suit various uses.

Why Use Custom Antibody Services

Natural antibody production is a time-consuming process. The need for high-quality antibodies in the shortest period to respond to new antigens and large quantities for diagnostic and research purposes necessitated custom antibody production.

Custom antibodies offer more excellent selectivity and high binding affinity than natural antibodies. Thanks to the advances in biotechnology, gene synthesis companies help produce synthetic custom antibodies.

There are many custom antibody service advantages. Here are some of them:

1. Customization

There are two reasons why antibody customization is beneficial. First, it is necessary when the body’s natural antibodies are not antigen specific. In such a case, the antibody can bind to non-targeted molecules. Custom antibodies can be designed with high specificity allowing high accuracy targeting of the antigens.

Customization service is also necessary when the supplier doesn't have the required antibody. If so, the company is provided with a sample antigen that should have 90% purity. Where there are no sample antigens, the service provider will have to design them before creating the antibodies.

Custom antibody production services can either be polyclonal or monoclonal. Polyclonal antibody productiontakes around 80 days, resulting in antibodies from different B cells that can target the same antigen on different epitopes. In monoclonal antibody production, the process takes 6 months, and antibodies are created to mimic human antibodies.

2. Antibody Fragments

Custom antibody production companies use advanced biotechnology to produce antibody fragments with many advantages compared to full antibodies. They include:

• Better tissue penetration: Their smaller size allows them to quickly move through tissues for improved access to the target areas.
• More rapid clearance from the body: Antibody fragments are cleared faster than full antibodies from the blood. Therefore, they are less toxic, improving safety.
• Antibody fragments are more stable: They have disulfide bonds that give them better stability than full antibodies. That means better resistance to degradation and more reliability.
• Lower non-specific binding: With smaller binding areas, antibody fragments have better specificity and reduced binding with the untargeted receptors.
• Great flexibility in antibody labeling: Antibody fragments can be chemically linked to various molecules for improved efficiency.
• Reduced production cost: Antibody fragments are cheaper, making them easily accessible to researchers.

Thanks to custom antibody services, antibody fragments can be accessed for various applications. This could have been harder with full antibodies.

3. High Specificity

Custom antibody production can amplify their specificity to the target molecules. They can be engineered to target epitomes with high precision by recognizing even the slightest structural differences. This makes working with complex biological samples possible.

On the contrary, finding commercial antibodies ideal for specific use is challenging. Although there are readily available antibodies, their quality varies, leading to failure. According to research, around US$800 million is lost on inferior antibodies annually. Using custom antibodies made for specific use is invaluable in diagnostics, therapeutics, and research.

4. High-Affinity

Affinity refers to how strongly the epitope bids to the antibody’s paratope. Antibodies with high affinity bind faster to the antigen and maintain the bond even under challenging conditions. It also allows greater sensitivity in antibody testing. On the contrary, low-affinity antibodies have weak bonds and are not easy to detect in the testing.

Regarding affinity, it's best to use antibody production services you can trust to avoid accelerated immunization. B cells that produce high-affinity antibodies are essential for proper protection against parasites and bacteria pathogens. Using low-affinity B cells in short immunization protocols results in a mix of low and high-affinity antibodies hence less effectiveness.

5. Better Quality

In terms of consistency, custom-made antibodies are better than natural antibodies. That’s because the purity of natural antibodies is influenced by environmental, health, and genetic factors.

And with antibodies' crucial role in research and diagnosis, quality should not be compromised. Inferior antibodies will not meet the expectations if they are not optimally produced. Custom antibodies have excellent homogeneity. This eliminates inconsistent results in their various applications and the entire project's success.

6. Quantity

Custom antibody production comes in handy when there is a need for antibodies in large quantities. It allows its large-scale application in diagnostic testing, treatment of infectious diseases, scientific research, and biosecurity. Custom antibody production services help produce high-affinity antibodies in larger quantities

7. Time-saving

Custom antibody services are essential when short of time since they have the experience and capacity to produce antibodies quickly. By delivering antibodies with the required qualities, they allow users to meet tight deadlines. However, ensuring the company has the capacity and resources to meet your needs is essential. Working with a reliable producer is a sure way to get everything right.

It's important to know that antibody production is a complex process. It goes through various stages where several factors could affect quality. Poorly produced antibodies will not meet the required quality leading to scientific, regulatory, and financial consequences. This is another reason to work with a professional custom antibody production company.

Access to Other Services

Peptide Design and Synthesis

Custom antibody services provide various services that add quality and convenience to clients. The goal of peptide synthesisservice is to produce top-tier antibodies by accurately assembling amino acid sequences, proper modification, and purification. In producing high-quality antibodies, the company needs specific capabilities to deliver high-quality antibodies, such as protein expression and the tools for peptide design.

Through gene synthesis, they develop a DNA sequence that produces RNA molecules. The information in the mRNA is then processed by transcription for protein synthesis. The companies also offer insect, mammalian, and bacterial protein expression services to achieve this. The synthetic protein is then purified before ELISA testing.

A reputable producer helps you determine the best antigenic peptide sequence for a successful custom antibody. They should provide peptides with the highest purity and at least 85% enough to create an immunogen ideal for antibody production.

Isolation and Purification of Antibodies

After peptide engineering, or when peptide design and modification are unnecessary in cases where the client has high-purity peptides, the companies move to antibody purification. This process entails isolating specific antibodies from ascites fluid, serum (polyclonal antibodies), or monoclonal antibodies.

The purification of antibodies is necessary to prevent unwanted interactions with protein molecules. It also leads to high-quality antibodies with better purity for various applications.

Antibody Labeling

Through antibody labeling services, custom antibody production allows better control over the antibody’s characteristics. This is achieved through the covalent attachment of gold nanoparticles, fluorescent dye, enzymes, biotin, and radioactive isotopes to antibodies for detection on the target sites. The result is antibodies with higher affinity, specificity, and consistency. However, the labeling method used depends on the desired outcome.

Antibody Characterization

Antibody characterization is essential in both biopharmaceutical development and research. The current technology produces therapeutic proteins with heterogeneous antibodies due to the various modifications across the production stages. As such, a thorough characterization is required for safe and replicable therapeutic proteins. Custom antibody production services use various techniques that produce thoroughly characterized antibodies.

Monoclonal Antibody Sequencing/Hybridoma Selection

Hybridoma selection helps in identifying and isolating hybridomas that generate desired monoclonal antibodies. It begins with hybridoma development, which entails generating monoclonal antibodies by fusing antibody-producing cells with myeloma cells to form immortalized cell lines capable of producing identical antibodies in large quantities.

In hybridoma selection, B-cells fused with myeloma cells are separated from those that didn't. The goal is to select hybridoma cells that produce quality antibodies with the required affinity and specificity. It involves incubating the cell mixture obtained from the host cell’s spleen for up to 14 days in HAT Medium (hypoxanthine-aminopterin-thymidine medium), a selection medium.

After selecting and cloning hybridoma cells, it produces monoclonal antibodies, which are analyzed through monoclonal antibody sequencing. The technique looks for an amino acid sequence in the tips of the Y-shaped molecule in various antibodies for those with high specificity in binding antigens. This allows the identification and characterization of antibodies to enhance their efficiency and production for therapeutic, diagnostic, and research use.

Gene Synthesis

Alt text – Antibody Production, Custom Antibody

Gene synthesis service is also available from custom antibody service providers. It allows the artificial development of specific DNA sequences in the lab. The synthetic gene allows researchers in different fields to create custom genes that enable the expression of particular proteins like antibodies in various host systems.

The companies offer different gene synthesis services, including gene assembly, cloning, and optimization, to meet the varied needs of researchers. Through the use of advanced technology, custom gene synthesis is reliable, accurate, and fast. This allows the creation of high-quality genesis on a large scale for carrying out successful projects.

Antibody Testing

Apart from the standard Elisa testing of custom antibodies, the companies offer other assay testing services that help validate antibodies for specific use. This service is useful to researchers who lack resources to validate and need ready fully-validated antibodies.

For those who want to do their validation, their custom ELISA kitgeneration service is helpful. It creates reliable kits that allow the quantification and detection of unique antigens. However, the service provider should optimize extensively to ensure the kits for successful assays.

Conclusion

There are many custom antibody service advantages that drive various advancements in the medical field. Unique custom-made polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies play a crucial role in researching and treating autoimmune diseases, asthma, and cancer. Designing and producing customized antibodies improves their therapeutic effects because of better affinity and precision. It also prolongs their half-life, which increases their efficiency.

However, creating new custom antibodies is lengthy, challenging, and requires money. The process's success depends on many factors, from intended use to how reliable quality control is. Leveraging on the expertise, experience, and state-of-the-art facilities of top custom antibody production companies guarantees success in your projects. From design to antibody production, they give you an easy time as you focus on other essential things.