Figure 1. Sequence analysis and purification of selected single domain antibodies.
(A) Sequence alignment of unique single domain VHH antibodies specific to pandemic H1N1 isolated in this study. CDR and framework regions are defined according to the IMGT numbering scheme (http://imgt.cines.fr/). The hallmark residues in framework region 2 (FR2) characteristic of camelid antibodies at positions 42, 49, 50 and 52 are indicated with a arrow head [53]. Conventional VH antibodies almost exclusively have V, G, L and W at these positions whereas in camelid VHH's these residues are replaced by 42(F/Y), 49 (E/Q/R), 50(R) and 52 (F/L) which is consistent with the VHH antibodies isolated in this study.(B) SDS-PAGE analysis of purified monovalent VHH antibodies and bivalent VHH antibodies. Molecular weight markers (Mw) 25, 20, 15 kDa.