first panel: the hypervariable regions (red) are positioned on the structure of a map of the coding region of the V domain. Second panel: when shown as a flattened ribbon diagram, hypervariable regions are seen to occur in loops (red) that join particular β strands. Third panel: in the folded structure of the V domain, these loops (red) are brought together to form antigen-binding regions. fourth panel: in a complete antibody molecule, the pairing of a heavy chain and a light chain brings together the hypervariable loops from each chain to create a single hypervariable surface, which forms the antigen-binding site at the tip of each arm. Because they are complementary to the antigen surface, the hypervariable regions are also commonly known as the complementarity-determining regions (cDRs). c, carboxy terminus; n, amino terminus.
region on the surface of the molecule. When the VH and VL immunoglobulin domains are paired in the antibody molecule, the three hypervariable loops from each domain are brought together, creating a single hypervariable site at the tip of each arm of the molecule. This is the antigen-binding site, or antibody-combining site, which determines the antigen specificity of the antibody. These six hypervariable loops are more commonly termed the complementarity-determining regions, or CDRs, because the surface they form is complementary to that of the antigen they bind. There are three CDRs from each of the heavy and light chains, namely, CDR1, CDR2, and CDR3. In most cases, CDRs from both VH and VL domains contribute to the antigen-binding site; thus it is the combination of the heavy and the light chain that usually determines the final antigen specificity (see Fig. 4.6). However, there are some Fab crystal structures that show antigen interaction with just the heavy chain; for example, in one influenza Fab, antigen interaction involves binding mostly to the VH CDR3, and only minor contacts with other CDRs. Thus, one way in which the immune system is able to generate antibodies of different specificities is by generating different combinations of heavy-chain and light-chain V regions. This is known as combinatorial diversity; we will encounter a second form of combinatorial diversity in Chapter 5 when we consider how the genes encoding the heavy-chain and light-chain V regions are created from smaller segments of DNA during the development of B cells in the bone marrow.
4-7 Antibodies bind antigens via contacts in CDRs that are complementary to the size and shape of the antigen.
In early investigations of antigen binding to antibodies, the only available sources of large quantities of a single type of antibody molecule were tumors of antibody-secreting cells. The antigen specificities of these antibodies were unknown, and therefore many compounds had to be screened to identify ligands that could be used to study antigen binding. In general, the substances found to bind to these antibodies were haptens (see Section 4-5) such as phosphocholine or vitamin K1. Structural analysis of complexes of antibodies with their hapten ligands provided the first direct evidence that the hypervariable regions form the antigen-binding site, and demonstrated the structural basis of specificity for the hapten. Subsequently, with the discovery of methods of generating monoclonal antibodies (see Appendix I, Section A-7), it became possible to make large amounts of pure antibody specific for a given antigen. This has provided a more general picture of how antibodies interact with their antigens, confirming and extending the view of antibody–antigen interactions derived from the study of haptens.
The surface of the antibody molecule formed by the juxtaposition of the CDRs of the heavy and light chains is the site to which an antigen binds. The amino acid sequences of the CDRs are different in different antibodies, and so too are the shapes and properties of the surfaces created by these CDRs. As a general principle, antibodies bind ligands whose surfaces are complementary to that of the antigen-binding site. A small antigen, such as a hapten or a short