TandAb® Antibodies
Affimed`s unique and fully patented TandAb® antibody platform is generating superior antibody therapeutics.
TandAb® Antibodies
More efficient than current therapeutics
Monoclonal antibodies have become a well validated and established treatment option for several indications. However, there is room for improvement regarding the monospecificity, molecular size for better tissue penetration, and IgG-mediated side effects. Therefore, Affimed has developed an array of proprietary recombinant antibody formats, including TandAbs®, that possess a wide variety of application possibilities.
Affimed has developed its TandAb® antibodies in order to increase the efficacy of current therapeutics, based on other antibody formats such as IgGs, Fabs and constructs based on single chain antibodies (scFv) and non-IgG scaffold formats. Generally, TandAbs® are tetravalent bispecific antibody formats which have two binding sites for each antigen. A TandAb® molecule is a homodimer consisting of only one polypeptide which is non-covalently linked in a head-to-tail folding pattern with the second polypeptide.
Therapeutics for diseases with high unmet needs
TandAbs® have proved to be particularly well suited for targeting tumor cells. Originally, these unique tetravalent antibodies were combined with Affimed´s know-how for the recruitment of cytotoxic immune cells to generate a number of highly potent reagents for cancer indications.
Intensive discovery and developmental research with these recruiting TandAb® molecules established Affimed´s first pillar of this promising technology, the RECRUIT-TandAb®. The results suggested manifold application possibilities of the TandAb® molecules per se, motivating us to set up a TandAb® technology platform that comprises the RECRUIT-TandAb® and the BiBLOCK-TandAb®.
The value and potency of this platform is distinguished by the possibility of selecting random targets and then choosing between different modes of action to create a therapeutic treatment approach for diseases with unmet medical need. A third category, the PROLONG-TandAb® to further optimize the pharmacokinetic properties is still in development, but has already shown promising results.
Folding pathway of TandAb® molecules
TandAbs® are expressed as a single polypeptide comprising four variable domains connected via amino-acid linkers varying in length. After translation in the endoplasmatic reticulum, the monomeric polypeptide pairs head-to-tail with another monomer, forming a functional homodimer TandAb® molecule.
