Capra Science Antibodies has projects on-going related to the present pandemic, to aid the diagnostic capacity in society. Developing antibodies for confirming the presence of coronavirus and for testing the presence for specific human antibodies against the coronavirus is on-going.  

State authorities, laboratories, pharma, biotech and diagnostic companies - we are at your service, if you need specific antibodies in the setting up diagnostic assays or kits for SARS-CoV-2. 

Please contact us at info@caprascience.com if you need our assistance.  

​Dr. Lovisa Hessle Bergman, the managing director, describes the safety of Capra Science Antibodies' in-house antibody production in the current pandemic situation: 

– We have the advantage that Capra Science Antibodies is situated on the country side, with no staff commuting with public transportation. But even in our case we are not taking the situation lightly. We have introduced many changes to our daily routines at Capra Science Antibodies; including taking extra strong hygiene measures, disinfecting incoming goods, no traveling and limiting the social contacts.

– We allow no visits to our farms or laboratories until further notice.

​– It’s certainly a unique situation for everyone. And as we have several hundred animals of different species at our two farms, we are taking all measures possible to secure that our staff stays healthy to ensure all animals are taken good care of and that the projects can continue to run smoothly.

​– I hope all customers feel confident that we are doing everything in our power to protect  their animals and projects from the ongoing pandemic situation. 
 
​– Our staff wishes everyone  good health and mental strength in these trying times.

Image from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbapap.2014.08.016
 
Antibodies derived from llamas, called nanobodies, comprise only a small part (a single domain) of conventional antibodies, yet possess full antigen-binding capacity. These nanobodies have shown great potential both as structural tools and as therapeutic agents in a number of diseases caused by protein dysfunction.

A study by Dr. Erwin De Genst and Dr. Marija Iljina reports that llama-derived nanobodies – essentially miniature antibodies – might find therapeutic application in Parkinson’s disease. The nanobodies can bind to harmful protein clumps in the brain, called oligomers, to neutralize toxicity and help prevent cell death. Furthermore, they found that the nanobodies are able to slow down the oligomer’s aggregation reaction.

We are happy to announce that in the near future, Capra Science farm will be housing llamas for development of nanobodies. More information will follow shortly.

The source of the study: https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-017-0390-6

Years before people start showing characteristic symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, sticky plaques, known as amyloid plaques, begin forming in their brains, damaging nearby cells. For decades, doctors have sought ways to clear out these plaques as a way to prevent or treat the disease.

A few antibodies that clear plaques by directly targeting amyloid beta are being evaluated in clinical trials. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have shown that a unique antibodies against another protein, APOE, have the ability to remove these plaques in a mouse disease model of Alzheimers. These antibodies were developed in collaboration with Denali Therapeutics.

“Many people build up amyloid over many years, and the brain just can’t get rid of it,” said senior author David Holtzman, MD, the Andrew B. and Gretchen P. Jones Professor and head of the Department of Neurology. “By removing plaques, if we start early enough, we may be able to stop the changes to the brain that result in forgetfulness, confusion and cognitive decline.”

Once antibodies attach themselves to their APOE target, they attract the attention of immune cells, which carry both antibody and target off to be destroyed. The researchers reasoned that nearby amyloid might be cleared away along with APOE.

The new findings, available March 26 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, could lead to a way to halt the brain damage triggered by amyloid plaques while the disease is still in its early stages. Capra Science Antibodies looks forward to following the development of their research towards a promising Alzheimer’s therapy.

Source:
Liao F, et.al. Targeting of non-lipidated, aggregated apoE with antibodies inhibits amyloid accumulation. Journal of Clinical Investigation. March 26, 2018.
https://medicine.wustl.edu/news/antibody-removes-alzheimers-plaques-via-apoe-mice/

Scientists have discovered a unique human antibody in the blood of a volunteer who had received an experimental vaccine made from weakened malaria parasites (PfSPZ Vaccine-Sanaria). The volunteer developed a unique malaria-targeting antibody named CI43. This antibody had the ability to protect mice from infection with the deadliest malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Furthermore, the volunteer carrying this unique antibody, was later exposed to infectious malaria-carrying mosquitoes under carefully controlled conditions, and did not become infected.

The research findings provide the basis for future testing in humans to determine if the antibody can provide short-term protection against malaria, and also aid in a future long-lasting vaccine design. Currently, there is no highly effective, long-lasting vaccine to prevent malaria, a mosquito-spread disease that causes some 430,000 deaths each year, primarily among young children in sub-Saharan Africa.

Investigators at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH, led this research with colleagues at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Additional collaborators on the study included scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute and Sanaria Inc., Rockville, Maryland.

Capra Science Antibodies looks forward to following the development of their research.

Source:
Neville K Kisalu, et al. A human monoclonal antibody prevents malaria infection by targeting a new site of vulnerability on the parasite. Nature Medicine, 2018; DOI: 10.1038/nm.4512
https://www.niaid.nih.gov/

Immunotherapy pioneer James P. Allison wins the Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biomedicine, reported in January 2018. Capra Science Antibodies congratulates Professor James P. Allison to this well deserved award! In the words of the jury’s citation, James P. Allison was the first to demonstrate that immunotherapy can treat cancer effectively, initiating an approach that "has provided clinical benefit to many cancer patients" and "stimulated the development of a new class of drugs employing the immune system to fight cancer." His work in immunology has clearly had an impact on today’s developing cancer treatments.
Read more about James P. Allison here: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-01/bf-ipj013018.php

Therapeutic antibodies, also called humanized monoclonal antibodies, have become the talk of the town in drug development the last few decades.  The antibody’s ability to bind to a specific molecule makes it very attractive in development of new treatments. Several successful antibody-based drugs have already been approved for  treatments of multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and several different cancers including colorectal cancer and breast cancer. And the list keeps growing.
 
At Capra Science Antibodies, we have the knowledge and capability to assist clients in developing new therapeutic antibodies by humanizing monoclonal antibodies originally developed in another species. This is needed to overcome immunologic side effects effected by the drug. Capra Science also has extensive experience in producing reliable specific antibodies towards the therapeutic antibodies (or anti-ADC antibodies) for monitoring in pre-clinical and clinical trials. The specific anti-drug antibodies that we develop are often polyclonal antibodies.

Drugs developed today are increasingly effective, saving many patients' lives.

However, many of these novel drugs work only on specific subgroups of human diseases. For example, this is true for a range of cancer treatments. The modern cancer drugs work very effectively on a defined group of cancers. Each sub-type of cancer has a “finger print” which is characterized by elevations or absence of different proteins in the tissue (biological markers).  Antibodies towards these biological markers are used as a tool to visualize the “finger print” and ultimately to identify the right patients for a certain cancer drug treatment. In the laboratory, these antibodies are usually used on patient test samples (blood or tissue) to define good matches between patient and drug.
 
Capra Science Antibodies produces many antibodies for pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies. Reliable, high quality antibodies are necessary to screen human samples and to identify the right patients for their highly specific drugs.  These screening antibodies can be monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies.

Self-diagnose home kits are becoming increasingly popular. During the last decade a growing list of home test kits, which are based on antibodies or antigens, have rapidly approached the market. Here are a few examples:
 
Health monitoring tests:

1. Family planning: Pregnancy home tests have been around since the late 1970s. Ovulation tests are now also available.
2. Cholesterol home tests
3. Blood typing self-test kits
4. Home tests for allergies towards food, dust mite, pet animals or grass pollen
5. Home drug tests for marijuana, cocaine, opiates or methamphetamine

 
Disease diagnosis tests:

1. HIV home tests
2. Home tests for various genital diseases have reached the market: Gonorrhea, Syphilis, Herpes, Chlamydia and yeast infections.
3. Other common diseases: Dengue fever, Malaria and Hepatitis C

 
Environmental test kits:

1. Rapid test kits for detection of contaminated soil or water, presence of pesticides, algal toxins in water, bacterial contamination in drinking water, or presence of mold.

 
Antibodies used in these applications are polyclonal or monoclonal.