Humanization

Development of therapeutic antibodies from tradition hybridoma in mice or rats requires part or the entire molecule to be “humanized,” that is, converting the protein sequence from non-human to human sequence. This will prevent the therapeutic antibody from being identified as immunogenic or “non-self” by the patient with a subsequent potentially dangerous immune response against the foreign protein.

In the simplest form, generation of a chimera results in a molecule with human constant region and non-human variable regions. This is suitable for antibodies used for short-term interventions.

For therapeutic antibodies requiring long-term administration, such as for anti-cancer therapies, more complete humanization is required. Paragon subcontracts complete humanization with experts in the technique of CDR grafting. In this method only the antigen binding region remains from the non-human sequence, the remainder of the molecule comprising human sequence.

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