Construction of Chicken-Mouse Chimeric Antibody and Immunogenicity in Mice

Chicken monoclonal antibodies are potentially useful for diagnostic research and have clinical applications, as chicken show higher potential for antibody production with mammalian-conserved biological molecules. However, the applications of chicken antibodies are limited because of their immunogenicity in mammals. To overcome this problem, we have constructed a chicken-mouse chimeric antibody containing the chicken variable region and the mouse constant region. This chimeric antibody retained similar binding affinities as the parental chicken antibody. The chimeric antibody was also producible as an ascitic antibody in BALB/c mice. Furthermore, when the chimeric antibody was administered to mice, it did not provoke the mouse anti-chicken antibody response. These results indicate that the chimeric antibody is suitable for application to preclinical mouse studies.