The present disclosure relates to the antibody engineering field and, more particularly, to a process for the screening of antibodies and/or the modulation of the agonistic/antagonistic activity of antibodies. More particularly, the disclosure concerns a process of improving the antagonistic activity of a monoclonal antibody directed against a specific target molecule, or a divalent functional fragment or derivative thereof, said antibody being capable of inhibiting one or more of the biological activities of said target molecule, wherein said process comprises a stage of reconfiguration of the hinge region consisting of a modification of the amino acid sequence of said hinge region by the deletion, the addition or the substitution of at least one amino acid. The disclosure also relates to polypeptides useful for such a modulation method and the obtained antibodies.