| abstract |
Novel methods for designing humanized immunoglobulins having one or more complementary determining regions (CDR's) from a donor immunoglobulin and a framework region from a human immunoglobulin comprising first comparing the framework or variable region amino acid sequence of the donor immunoglobulin to corresponding sequences in a collection of human immunoglobulin chains, and selecting as the human immunoglobulin one of the more homologous sequences from the collection. Each humanized immunoglobulin chain may comprise about 3 or more amino acids from the donor immunoglobulin in addition to the CDR's, usually at least one of which is immediately adjacent to a CDR in the donor immunoglobulin. The heavy and light chains may each be designed by using any one or all three additional position criteria. When combined into an intact antibody, the humanized immunoglobulins of the present invention will be substantially non-immunogenic in humans and retain substantially the same affinity as the donor immunoglobulin to the antigen, such as a protein or other compound containing an epitope. |