• antibody
• bait
• intrabodies
• post-translational modification
• protein silencing
• protein targeting
• PTM
• scFv
• single domain antibodies
• yeast two-hybrid

Intracellular Antibodies (Intrabodies) are engineered antibodies (or antibody domains) ectopically expressed in several cell types to specifically perturb the function of intracellular antigens. (Biocca & Cattaneo, 1995)

Since Antibodies are proteins whose folding depends on the formation of critical disulphide bonds, the successful recognition of the physiological target, located in a reducing environment such as the cytoplasm, is somewhat unpredictable.
For this reason, a general and reliable method for the intracellular selection of Intrabodies was developed (Visintin et al, 1999). Based on the two-hybrid assay in yeast, the so-called “IACT” (Intracellular Antibody Capture Technology) allows us to isolate specific intrabodies, from diverse cDNA libraries of antibody domains [either ScFv (Single Chain Fragment Variable domains) or dAbs (single domain antibodies)] directly in the cytosolic environment, avoiding any protein manipulation and solving the folding problem.