Scientists have built their own “mini-antibodies” using software that predicts how proteins fold. The advance could enable development of a new class of drugs to fight everything from cancer to COVID19.
Scientists have built their own “mini-antibodies” using software that predicts how proteins fold. The advance could enable development of a new class of drugs to fight everything from cancer to COVID-19.
Antibodies excel at binding to proteins, such as those on invading microbes, so pharmaceutical companies use them as drugs to battle infections and cancer. But because antibodies are large proteins, they are costly to make and often unstable. Researchers have been working to make miniature versions of these binders that are cheaper and often more stable. But designing them to bind specific targets has been difficult.
Miniproteins have fewer options. Researchers have tried to overcome this deficiency by identifying hot spots on proteins—strong handholds—and then build miniproteins around that hold. That only works for a handful of targets studied enough that their hot spots have been scoped out, however.
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