A NEW METHOD BASED ON THE USE OF IMMOBILIZED SINGLE-DOMAIN ANTIBODIES TO REMOVE CERTAIN MAJOR PROTEINS FROM BLOOD PLASMA HELPS TO REDUCE NONSPECIFIC SIGNAL IN AN IMMUNOASSAY

A generally underestimated problem of immunoassays is its susceptibility to various interferences, being the Achilles heel of these assays (interventions in the analysis). The presence of interfering substances in the patient’s specimen can cause erroneous test sample result, which may lead to incorrect diagnosis and catastrophic consequences for the patient. Hence, one should pay particular attention to identifying possible interferences in the test systems used and, when possible, develop and apply methods to overcome them. The issue of avoiding interference is particularly important for immunoassays of biomarkers in human plasma or serum. In order to reduce possible interferences, it would be desirable to have an opportunity of specific and adaptable pretreatment of blood samples for a specifically assayed marker protein, as applied to a specific test system. We assume that such pretreatment may be done by combining the immunosorbents based on the use of special single-domain antibodies (nanobodies).The nanobodies are recombinant proteins, derivatives of single-domain antigen-recognizing variable fragments of specific antibodies, consisting of a dimer of truncated heavy chains in the complete absence of light chains. Such specific antibodies are detectable in the normal samples taken from members of the Camelidae family (Camelids), and in some species of cartilaginous fishes, along with the common antibodies. The special properties of nanobodies can provide certain advantages in their use, compared with antibodies of traditional structure and their derivatives.In this paper, we have shown for the first time, that the immunosorbents based on certain combination of single-domain antibodies used as ligands able for specifically binding and removal of specific high-abundance human blood proteins, may be selected for a given marker blood antigen in such a way that they will be an effective tool for blood pretreatment, aiming to reduce possible effects of interference and increased sensitivity in the diagnostic “sandwich” enzyme immunoassay. A new method of plasma pretreatment is demonstrated with human plasma samples (at a dilution of 1:40) of two patients. A previously developed model system for detection of lactoferrin protein was used to analyze plasma samples. It is shown that a significantly increased ratio of total detected signal to the nonspecific background signal could be obtained after drastic reduction of this background by affinity removal of 3 major protein fractions, i.e., fibrinogen, IgG alpha-2-macroglobulin from blood plasma samples, using appropriate immobilized single domain antibodies

Expression profiles of acute lymphoblastic and myeloblastic leukemias with ALL-1 rearrangements

The ALL-1 gene is directly involved in 5-10% of ALLs and AMLs by fusion to other genes or through internal rearrangements. DNA microarrays were utilized to determine expression profiles of ALLs and AMLs with ALL-1 rearrangements. These profiles distinguish those tumors from other ALLs and AMLs. The expression patterns of ALL-1-associated tumors, in particular ALLs, involve oncogenes, tumor suppressors, anti apoptotic genes, drug resistance genes etc., and correlate with the aggressive nature of the tumors. The genes whose expression differentiates between ALLs with and without ALL-1 rearrangement were further divided into several groups enabling separation of ALL-1- associated ALLs into two subclasses. Further, AMLs with partial duplication of ALL-1 vary in their expression pattern from AMLs in which ALL-1 had undergone fusion to other genes. The extensive analysis described here draws attention to genes which might have a direct role in pathogenesis

ALL-1/MLL1, a homologue of Drosophila TRITHORAX, modifies chromatin and is directly involved in infant acute leukaemia

Rearrangements of the ALL-1/MLL1 gene underlie the majority of infant acute leukaemias, as well as of therapy-related leukaemias developing in cancer patients treated with inhibitors of topoisomerase II, such as VP16 and doxorubicin. The rearrangements fuse ALL-1 to any of \u3e50 partner genes or to itself. Here, we describe the unique features of ALL-1-associated leukaemias, and recent progress in understanding molecular mechanisms involved in the activity of the ALL-1 protein and of its Drosophila homologue TRITHORAX

Russ. J. Genet.

Immunofluorescence staining of sequentially extracted nuclei and Western blot analysis of proteins from the nuclear extract fractions showed for the first time that protein TRITHORAX, one of the most important proteins maintaining the tissue-specific transcriptionally active state of many Drosophila melanogaster genes, is associated with the nuclear matrix. TRITHORAX displayed similar staining at different stages of nuclear extraction and on the polytene chromosomes of the intact nuclei, as well as after partial or complete disruption of the nuclear envelope and chromosome release. This suggests that TRITHORAX bound to certain regulatory chromosome regions interacts with the adjacent elements of the nuclear scaffold, i.e., links the regions of actively transcribed genes with the nuclear matrix

B2 RNA and 7SK RNA, RNA polymerase III transcripts, have a cap-like structure at their 5' end.

We found that hydrolysates of poly(A)+ RNA from Ehrlich ascites carcinoma cells which were transcribed by RNA polymerase III contained an unusual component designated as X. It was part of B2 RNA representing a transcript of B2 retroposon, typical of rodents. The component X possesses a cap-like structure, xppp5'G, where x has a non-nucleotide structure. About half of all B2 RNAs contained this group at the 5' end. Previously, Epstein et al. (1) detected a similar structure at the 5' end of small nuclear U6 RNA. Later, Singh and Reddy (2) showed methyl to be the blocking group in the component x of U6 RNA. Besides B2 RNA, we found 5' ends containing methyl groups in 7SK RNA

SINGLE DOMAIN ANTIBODIES AND BIOENGINEERING DRUGS ON THEIR BASIS: NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR DIAGNOSTICS AND THERAPY

Almost 20 years ago, a unique class of antibodies devoid of L chains was discovered in Camelidae blood serum. Only one variable domain is responsible for antigen recognition in these unusual antibodies. A recombinant protein, which is analogue to such antigen-recognizing variable domain was called the single domain antibody (sdAb), “nanobody” or “nanoantibody”. The single-domain antibodies and their derivatives have been widely used in the field of biology, toxicology and medicine offering new opportunities for diagnosis and treatment of cancer, autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, and for toxin neutralization. This review focuses on latest researches in the field and concerns some prospectives for creation of nanoantibody-based diagnostic and therapeutic drugs