Nanobodies versus canonical antibodies: an updated comparison of their binding modes (opens in new tab)

Heavy-chain-only antibodies, produced by the adaptive immune systems of camelids and cartilaginous fish, complement canonical antibodies that contain variable domains from both heavy and light chains. We refine previous studies by providing a detailed analysis of the binding modes of VHHs versus canonical antibodies, using a dataset with a 20-fold increase in the number of cases. We show that VHHs exhibit a larger buried surface area despite relying on a single variable domain than double dom...