Design and Production of Multimeric Antibody Fragments, Focused on Diabodies with Enhanced Clinical Efficacy

Multimeric antibody fragments, particularly dimers (diabodies), trimers (triabodies), and tetramers (tetrabodies) of single-chain Fv molecules (scFv), provide high avidity through multivalent binding to the target antigen. The combination of their smaller size and avid binding can provide desirable biological characteristics for tumor targeting applications in vivo; for example, diabodies can have greater tumor penetration and faster blood clearance rates compared to intact full-size antibodies (IgGs). The pharmacokinetic and biodistribution characteristics can further be optimized by the addition of specific thiolation sites for conjugation of PEG molecules to regulate molecular weight and reduce kidney uptake. Thiolation sites can also be used for precise loading of therapeutic payloads. This protocol describes our method for construction and bacterial production of soluble multimeric antibody scFv fragments, focusing on diabodies (scFv dimers).