Overview

• Researchers at the University of Southampton have engineered antibodies with added disulfide bonds to increase rigidity and improve immune cell activation.
• The prototype antibodies elicited significantly stronger immune responses in preclinical assays compared to natural variants.
• This approach has been shown to work across multiple immune receptors, enhancing its potential applicability in cancer immunotherapy.
• The study, funded by Cancer Research UK, was published in the journal Nature Communications and highlights the role of structural biology in antibody design.
• Next steps involve optimizing the prototypes and conducting in vivo studies to advance their development into potent cancer treatments.