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Updated: May 19, 2026
Immunization of Alpacas (Lama pacos) with Protein Antigens and Production of Antigen-specific Single Domain Antibodies
Published on: January 26, 2019
Preparation of a naïve library of camelid single domain antibodies
Aurelien Olichon1, Ario de Marco
1INSERM U563-Institut Claudius Regaud, Toulouse, France.
The preparation of antibody libraries starting from lymphocytes recovered from immunized members of the Camelidae enables to collect binders that underwent somatic maturation. However, the time and costs necessary to prepare a library for each new antigen may urge to look for alternatives such as those offered by large one-pot libraries. Here we describe how to obtain a suitable naïve library using material from nonimmunized llamas. Despite the lack of somatic maturation, the selection based on phage display allowed to isolate from such naïve libraries VHHs with affinity in the subnanomolar range and suitable for the standard immunoapplications.
The preparation of antibody libraries starting from lymphocytes recovered from immunized members of the Camelidae enables to collect binders that underwent somatic maturation. However, the time and costs necessary to prepare a library for each new antigen may urge to look for alternatives such as those offered by large one-pot libraries. Here we describe how to obtain a suitable naïve library using material from nonimmunized llamas. Despite the lack of somatic maturation, the selection based on phage display allowed to isolate from such naïve libraries VHHs with affinity in the subnanomolar range and suitable for the standard immunoapplications.
