{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,22]],"date-time":"2026-02-22T21:27:07Z","timestamp":1771795627129,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,5]],"date-time":"2022-08-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1659657600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["31901779"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["31901779"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Biomolecules"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Serum ferritin (SF) is an iron-rich protein tightly connected with iron homeostasis, and the variations are frequently observed in diseased states, including iron-deficiency anemia, inflammation, liver disease, and tumors, which renders SF level an indicator of potential malignancies in clinical practice. Nanobodies (Nbs) have been widely explored and developed into theranostic reagents. Surprisingly, no reports stated the identification of anti-SF Nbs, nor the potential of such Nbs as a diagnostic tool. In this study, we generated SF-specific Nbs and provided novel clinical diagnostic approaches to develop an immunoassay. An immune library was constructed after immunizing an alpaca with SF, and five Nbs specifically targeting human SF were retrieved. The obtained Nbs exhibited robust properties including high stability, affinity, and specificity. Then, an ELISA-based test using a heterologous Nb-pair was developed. The calibration curve demonstrated a linear range of SF between 9.0 to 1100 ng\/mL, and a limit of detection (LOD) of 1.01 ng\/mL. The detecting recovery and coefficient variation (CV) were determined by spiking different concentrations of SF into the serum sample, to verify the successful application of our selected Nbs for SF monitoring. In general, this study generated SF-specific Nbs and demonstrated their potential as diagnostic immunoassay tools.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/biom12081080","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,7]],"date-time":"2022-08-07T21:03:50Z","timestamp":1659906230000},"page":"1080","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["Identification of Serum Ferritin-Specific Nanobodies and Development towards a Diagnostic Immunoassay"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6228-9220","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yaozhong","family":"Hu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute of Public Health, School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jing","family":"Lin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute of Public Health, School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yi","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute of Public Health, School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sihao","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute of Public Health, School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jing","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute of Public Health, School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Huan","family":"Lv","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute of Public Health, School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xuemeng","family":"Ji","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute of Public Health, School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3678-3575","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Serge","family":"Muyldermans","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1050 Brussels, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yan","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute of Public Health, School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Shuo","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute of Public Health, School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"760","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bbagen.2010.03.011","article-title":"Serum ferritin: Past, present and future","volume":"1800","author":"Wang","year":"2010","journal-title":"Biochim. 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