<p>Diseases
are multifactorial, with redundancies and synergies between various pathways.
However, most of the antibody-based therapeutics in clinical trials and on the
market interact with only one target thus limiting their efficacy. The
targeting of multiple epitopes could improve the therapeutic index of treatment
and counteract mechanisms of resistance. To this effect, a new class of
therapeutics emerged: bispecific antibodies.</p><p>Bispecific formation
using chemical methods is rare and low yielding and/or requires a large excess
of one of the two proteins to avoid homodimerisation. In order for chemically prepared
bispecifics to deliver their full potential, high-yielding, modular and
reliable cross-linking technologies are required. Herein, we describe a novel
approach not only for the rapid and high-yielding chemical generation of
bispecific antibodies from native antibody fragments, but also for the
site-specific dual functionalisation of the resulting bioconjugates. Based on
orthogonal clickable functional groups, this strategy enables the assembly of
functionalised bispecifics with controlled loading in a modular and convergent
manner.</p>
Under greenhouse conditions 12 maize hybrids derived from crosses of four resistant lines with several lines of different level of susceptibility were evaluated for resistance to Czech isolate of Sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV). These hybrids were not fully resistant to isolate of SCMV, but the symptoms on their newly growing leaves usually developed 1 to 3 weeks later in comparison with particular susceptible line, the course of infection was significantly slower and rate of infection lower. As for mechanisms of resistance, the presence of SCMV was detected by ELISA in inoculated leaves both of resistant and susceptible lines, but virus was detected 7 days later in resistant line. Systemic infection developed only in susceptible lines. These results indicate restriction of viral long distance movement in the resistant line.
Maize resistance to Sugarcane mosaic virus
