Nanobody production can be simplified by direct secretion from Escherichia coli

It is well known that camelids (camels and llamas) have fully functional antibodies with only a heavy chain consisting of a single variable domain and two constant domains. This single variable domain is called a “nanobody” and many nanobodies are synthesized in the cytosol of Escherichia coli, however, most of the nanobodies become inclusion bodies without tags to enhance their solubility. We generated a vector system to enable the secretary expression of nanobodies in Escherichia coli. In this system, several NBs were secreted into the culture supernatant. Since the vector contained 6xHis tag and AviTAG, biotinylation (even fluorescent-labeled) of AviTAG was achieved during cell culture, and purification of the supernatant was a step by immobilized metal ion adsorption chromatography. The procedure described in this study is believed to be as simple as regular plasmid minipreps. Therefore, many laboratories can use this method.