https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3766-1980
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ABSTRACT
We are entering an era in which therapeutic proteins are assembled using building block-like strategies, with no standardized schema to discuss these formats. Existing nomenclatures, like AbML, sacrifice human readability for precision. Therefore, considering even a dozen such formats, in combination with hundreds of possible targets, can create confusion and increase the complexity of drug discovery. To address this challenge, we introduce Verified Taxonomy for Antibodies (VERITAS). This classification and nomenclature scheme is extensible to multispecific therapeutic formats and beyond. VERITAS names are easy to understand while drawing direct connections to the structure of a given format, with or without specific target information, making these names useful to adopt in scientific discourse and as inputs to machine learning algorithms for drug development.
Abbreviations
| AbML | = | Antibody Markup Language |
| ADAPTIR | = | Aptevo Therapeutics’ bispecific antibody platform |
| ATTACK | = | Asymmetric Tandem Trimerbody for T cell Activation and Cancer Killing |
| BiTE® | = | Bispecific T cell Engager |
| CD3 | = | cluster of differentiation 3 |
| CH1 | = | constant domain 1 of heavy chain |
| CH2 | = | constant domain 2 of heavy chain |
| CH3 | = | constant domain 3 of heavy chain |
| CL | = | constant domain of light chain |
| CODV | = | cross-over dual variable |
| CPM | = | charge-pair mutation |
| DART | = | Dual Affinity Re-Targeting |
| DVD-Ig | = | dual variable domain immunoglobulin |
| EGFR | = | EGFR – epithelial growth factor receptor |
| Fab | = | fragment antigen binding (composed of VH, CH1, VL, and CL) |
| Fc | = | fragment crystallizable (composed of a dimer of CH1, CH2, and CH3) |
| Fv | = | variable region of antibody (composed of VH and VL) |
| heteroFc | = | heterodimeric Fc |
| Fd | = | fragment difficult (composed of VH and CH1) |
| HLE | = | half-life extended |
| Ig | = | immunoglobulin |
| IgG | = | immunoglobulin G |
| MsAb | = | multispecific antibody |
| KiH | = | knobs-into-holes |
| LC | = | light chain of antibody (composed of VL and CL) |
| scFab | = | single chain Fab |
| scFv | = | single chain Fv |
| VERITAS | = | Verified Taxonomy for Antibodies |
| VH | = | variable domain of heavy chain |
| VHH | = | variable domain of heavy chain only antibody |
| VL | = | variable domain of light chain |
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Atipat (Dak) Rojnuckarin for his work in implementing the scheme in Amgen’s internal applications and databases. We also thank Ai Ching Lim for her support in developing VERITAS. Finally, we thank the members of Amgen Biologic Therapeutic Discovery and Process Development for their valuable feedback on the scheme during development.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.