Exploiting Nanobodies in the Detection and Quantification of Human Growth Hormone via Phage-Sandwich Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay

Background: Monitoring blood levels of human growth hormone (hGH) in most children with short stature deficiencies is crucial for taking a decision of treatment with extended course of daily and expensive doses of recombinant hGH (rhGH or Somatropin^®). Besides, misusing of rhGH by sportsmen is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency and thus sensitive GH-detecting methods are highly welcome in this field. Nanobodies are the tiniest antigen-binding entity derived from camel heavy chain antibodies. They were successfully generated against numerous antigens including hormones.

Methods: A fully nanobody-based sandwich ELISA method was developed in this work for direct measurement of GH in biological samples.

Results: Two major characteristics of nanobody were exploited for this goal: the robust and stable structure of the nanobody (NbGH04) used to capture hGH from tested samples, and the great ability of tailoring, enabling the display of the anti-GH detector nanobody (NbGH07) on the tip of M13-phage. Such huge, stable, and easy-to-prepare phage-Nb was used in ELISA to provide an amplified signal. Previously, NbGH04 was retrieved on immobilized hGH by phage display from a wide "immune" cDNA library prepared from a hGH-immunized camel. Here, and in order to assure epitope heterogeneity, NbGH07 was isolated from the same library using NbGH04-captured hGH as bait. Interaction of both nanobodies with hGH was characterized and compared with different anti-GH nanobodies and antibodies. The sensitivity (~0.5 ng/ml) and stability of the nanobody-base sandwich ELISA were assessed using rhGH before testing in the quantification of hGH in blood sera and cell culture supernatants.

Conclusion: In regard to all advantages of nanobodies; stability, solubility, production affordability in Escherichia coli, and gene tailoring, nanobody-based phage sandwich ELISA developed here would provide a valuable method for hGH detection and quantification.