Selection and characterization of single chain Fv fragments against murine recombinant prion protein from a synthetic human antibody phage display library

We describe the selection of single chain Fv fragments (scFv) against recombinant murine prion protein (mPrP) from a synthetic human antibody phage display library. Six different antibodies were isolated after three rounds of panning against full-length mPrP. All antibodies recognized a truncated form of mPrP containing residues (121–231). The amino acid sequence of the CDR3 of the scFv fragments has been determined. Five of the antibodies have been over-expressed, purified and their affinity for full-length mPrP determined by ELISA. The observed binding affinities vary from 30 nM to 2.7 µM.