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Affimers

 

Affimer molecules are small, highly stable proteins that bind their target molecules with similar specificity and affinity to that of antibodies. These engineered non-antibody binding proteins are designed to mimic the molecular recognition characteristics of monoclonal antibodies in different applications. Protein engineers have attempted to improve the experimental properties of these affinity reagents, to increase their stability, make them robust across a range of temperatures and pH, offer small sizes of the reagent, and make them easy to express at high yields in E.coli and mammalian cells.

Affimer proteins were developed initially at the MRC Cancer Cell Unit in Cambridge then across two laboratories at the University of Leeds. Derived from the cysteine protease inhibitor family of cystatins, which function in nature as cysteine protease inhibitors, these 12–14 kDa proteins share the common tertiary structure of an alpha-helix lying on top of an anti-parallel beta-sheet.

Affimer proteins display two peptide loops and an N-terminal sequence that can all be randomised to bind to desired target proteins with high affinity and specificity, in a similar manner to monoclonal antibodies. Stabilisation of the two peptides by the protein scaffold constrains the possible conformations that the peptides can take, increasing the binding affinity and specificity compared to libraries of free peptides.