单链抗体的表达

单链抗体(scFv)是具有抗体活性的最小功能结构单位,是基因工程抗体研究领域中的热点,具有比单克隆抗体在生物病原体、微生物污染和寄生虫病等预防、检测和治疗的独特优点和应用前景.鉴于其重要性,单键抗体在不同的表达系统中得到表达与研究.简要综速了scFv的表达.     

Generation and characterisation of functional recombinant antibody fragments against RNA replicase NIb from plum pox virus

A monoclonal antibody (mAb 2A) able to react against the RNA replicase NIb from plum pox virus (PPV) was obtained and used for generating a specific scFv fragment. The VH and VL coding sequences were cloned and expressed as a fusion scFv protein to alkaline phosphatase. This fusion protein was able to recognise viral NIb in both Western and tissue-print ELISA blots. The affinity and specificity of scFv2A for NIb was similar to that of the parental mAb and the region YLEAFY from PPV-NIb was identified by PEPSCAN assay as the putative epitope. Isolated VH domains from scFv2A were also expressed as fusion to alkaline phosphatase. However, their ability to react against NIb was greatly altered. scFv2A fragments were transiently expressed in the cytosol of Nicotiana benthamiana and although they accumulated to low levels, inhibition-ELISA results indicated that they retained antigen-binding activity.     

Production of a soluble single-chain variable fragment antibody against okadaic acid and exploration of its specific binding

Okadaic acid is a lipophilic marine algal toxin commonly responsible for diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP). Outbreaks of DSP have been increasing and are of worldwide public health concern; therefore, there is a growing demand for more rapid, reliable, and economical analytical methods for the detection of this toxin. In this study, anti-okadaic acid single-chain variable fragment (scFv) genes were prepared by cloning heavy and light chain genes from hybridoma cells, followed by fusion of the chains via a linker peptide. An scFv–pLIP6/GN recombinant plasmid was constructed and transformed into Escherichia coli for expression, and the target scFv was identified with IC–CLEIA (chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassay). The IC₁₅ was 0.012 ± 0.02 μg/L, and the IC₅₀ was 0.25 ± 0.03 μg/L. The three-dimensional structure of the scFv was simulated with computer modeling, and okadaic acid was docked to the scFv model to obtain a putative structure of the binding complex. Two predicted critical amino acids, Ser32 and Thr187, were then mutated to verify this theoretical model. Both mutants exhibited significant loss of binding activity. These results help us to understand this specific scFv–antigen binding mechanism and provide guidance for affinity maturation of the antibody in vitro. The high-affinity scFv developed here also has potential for okadaic acid toxin detection.     

Breast carcinoma specific antibody selection combining phage display and immunomagnetic cell sorting

To discover new specific antibodies directed against disseminated carcinoma cells in breast cancer patients, a strategy combining single-chain variable fragment (scFv) phage display and immunomagnetic cell sorting was developed. A selection model, in which ErbB2-expressing breast carcinoma SKBR3 cells are spiked into a 50-fold excess of lymphocytes, was setup. Selection conditions, optimized using the previously characterized ErbB2-specific F5 phage scFv, led to an outstanding phage enrichment yield of 25,000 after only one round. This protocol applied to human nai ve and synthetic phage display antibody libraries led to the selection, in only two rounds, of individual scFv clones (43 out of 46 tested) specific for non-epithelial carcinoma antigens expressed on SKBR3 cells. This strategy is fully applicable to metastatic cells in effusions from breast carcinoma patients and shall lead to the discovery of immunotools crucial for novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.     

Functional intracellular antibody fragments do not require invariant intra-domain disulfide bonds

Intracellular antibody fragments that interfere with molecular interactions inside cells are valuable in investigation of interactomes and in therapeutics, but their application demands that they function in the reducing cellular milieu. We show here a 2.7-Å crystal structure of intracellular antibody folds based on scaffolds developed from intracellular antibody capture technology, and we reveal that there is no structural or functional difference with or without the intra-domain disulfide bond of the variable domain of heavy chain or the variable domain of light chain. The data indicate that, in the reducing in vivo environment, the absence of the intra-domain disulfide bond is not an impediment to correction of antibody folding or to interaction with antigen. Thus, the structural constraints for in-cell function are intrinsic to variable single-domain framework sequences, providing a generic scaffold for isolation of functional intracellular antibody single domains.     

High-level expression of a functional humanized anti-CTLA4 single-chain variable fragment antibody in <Emphasis Type=Italic>Pichia pastoris</Emphasis>

The administration of antibodies against the cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4) is a promising approach in the upregulation of immune responses in many cancers and infectious diseases. The single-chain variable fragment of antibody against CTLA4 is also useful in developing immunotoxins that might be used in the treatment of cancer, transplant rejection, and autoimmune diseases. Here, we report the production of a soluble and functional scFv antibody against CTLA4 by using Pichia pastoris as the expression system. The gene encoding scFv hS83 with an additional 6His-tag at the 5’-end was inserted into the expression vector pPIC9K. Then, the transformants were double-screened on plates containing 0.25 mg/mL and 1.5 mg/mL of neomycin G418 and many clones with different levels of G418-resistance were selected for further studies on expression. After induction by the addition of methanol, various levels of hS83 were detected in the supernatant of P. pastoris containing pPIC9K-hS83. Clones with low G418-resistance produced more hS83 than those with higher G418-resistance. Under the optimized conditions (initial inoculum, 40 A_600nm AU/mL; pH 6.0; methanol concentration, 3.0%; induction time, 72 h), approximately 16–20 mg protein could be recovered from 1 L of the culture. The purified hS83 had a stronger binding ability towards CTLA4-positive Raji cells than CTLA4-negative ECV304 cells. This finding indicates that the antibody produced by P. pastoris is functional and may be used in immunotherapy for cancer, infection, transplant rejection, and autoimmune diseases. Huawei Cai and Lihong Chen contributed equally to this work.     

从噬菌体展示抗体文库筛选对虾白斑综合征病毒的单链抗体

对虾白斑综合征是一种严重危害对虾养殖业的病毒性疾病.由于目前对其病原体对虾白斑综合征病毒（WSSV）的研究不够深入,所以对WSSV的有效防治仍然是一大难题.为此,用完整的对虾白斑综合征病毒粒子作为靶抗原固相包被,淘选噬菌体展示单链抗体文库,得到两个能够与WSSV结合的单链抗体：E2和H4.单链抗体H4能够结合病毒并抑制病毒对原代培养的对虾淋巴细胞的感染,这些结果表明此单链抗体具有开发为诊断试剂盒和抗病毒药物的潜力.     

Expression, purification, and refolding of a novel immunotoxin containing humanized single-chain fragment variable antibody against CTLA4 and the N-terminal fragment of human perforin

Immunotoxins might be potential in treatment of cancer for their ability to kill selected cell populations. We constructed a novel immunotoxin hS83P34 by fusing N-terminal 34 amino acid fragment of human perforin to the C-terminus of humanized single-chain fragment variable antibody against CTLA4. The fusion protein was inductively expressed as inclusion bodies at a high level about 30% of total bacterial proteins. After washing with buffer containing 2 M urea, the purity of inclusion body was about 71%. The washed inclusion bodies were solubilized in 8 M urea and further purified to homogeneity (approximately 92% purity) by cation-exchange chromatography and Ni-agarose affinity chromatography under denaturing condition. The inclusion body refolding conditions were optimized following Pro-Matrix Protein Refolding Guide. After refolded in Tris buffer (pH 8.0) containing 1M urea, 0.8 M l-arginine, and 2 mM GSH:0.2 mM GSSG or 2 mM GSH:0.4 mM GSSG for 18h at 4 degrees C, over 90% proteins were recovered from inclusion bodies. In vitro dose-dependent cytotoxicity assay demonstrates that hS83P34 is only toxic to CTLA4-positive cells. IC(50) of hS83P34 for leukemic cells Raji and 6T-CEM are about 0.85 and 1.3 microM individually. Whereas, CTLA4-negative endothelial cell ECV-304 is resistant to hS83P34.     

Femtosecond spectroscopy probes the folding quality of antibody fragments expressed as GFP fusions in the cytoplasm

Time-resolved femtosecond spectroscopy can improve the application of green fluorescent proteins (GFPs) as protein-folding reporters. The study of ultrafast excited-state dynamics (ESD) of GFP fused to single chain variable fragment (scFv) antibody fragments, allowed us to define and measure an empirical parameter that only depends on the folding quality (FQ) of the fusion. This method has been applied to the analysis of genetic fusions expressed in the bacterial cytoplasm and allowed us to distinguish folded and thus functional antibody fragments (high FQ) with respect to misfolded antibody fragments. Moreover, these findings were strongly correlated to the behavior of the same scFvs expressed in animal cells. This method is based on the sensitivity of the ESD to the modifications in the tertiary structure of the GFP induced by the aggregation state of the fusion partner. This approach may be applicable to the study of the FQ of polypeptides over-expressed under reducing conditions.     

“Cleavable” hapten-biotin conjugates: Preparation and use for the generation of anti-steroid single-domain antibody fragments

Antibody engineering technology has the potential to provide artificial antibodies with higher performance than conventional antibodies. Filamentous phage particles are often used to express a vast diversity of mutated antibody fragments from which clones displaying improved fragments can be isolated. We recently showed that hapten-biotin conjugates, combined via a linker involving a reductively cleavable disulfide bond, are useful for isolating phage clones displaying high-affinity anti-hapten antibody fragments. Here we prepare cleavable hapten-biotin conjugates and use them to isolate anti-hapten antibody fragments with relatively low affinities. Three diagnostically important steroids (estradiol-17β [E₂], cortisol, and 17α-hydroxyprogesterone) were each coupled with a biotin derivative containing a disulfide bond. These conjugates could be bound simultaneously by their relevant anti-steroid antibody and NeutrAvidin, and their linkers were easily cleaved by dithiothreitol (DTT) treatment. The E₂-biotin conjugate was used to generate anti-E₂ single-domain antibody fragments (sdAbs). Random point mutations were introduced by error-prone PCR into the gene fragment encoding the V_H domain of a mouse anti-E₂ antibody, and these products were expressed as phagemid particles that were reacted with the E₂-biotin conjugates that had already been immobilized on a solid-phase via NeutrAvidin. Thorough washing off of nonspecific phages and subsequent DTT treatment provided a phagemid clone that displayed a mutated sdAb with improved binding properties.     

The plantibody approach: expression of antibody genes in plants to modulate plant metabolism or to obtain pathogen resistance

Immunomodulation is a molecular technique that allows the interference with cellular metabolism or pathogen infectivity by the ectopic expression of genes encoding antibodies or antibody fragments. In recent years, several reports have proven the value of this tool in plant research for modulation of phytohormone activity and for blocking plant-pathogen infection. Efficient application of the plantibody approach requires different levels of investigation. First of all, methods have to be available to clone efficiently the genes coding for antibodies or antibody fragments that bind the target antigen. Secondly, conditions to obtain high accumulation of antigen-binding antibodies and antibody fragments in plants are being investigated and optimized. Thirdly, different strategies are being evaluated to interfere with the function of the target molecule, thus enabling immunomodulation of metabolism or pathogen infectivity. In the near future, optimized antibody gene isolation and expression, especially in reducing subcellular environments, such as the cytosol and nucleus, should turn immunomodulation into a powerful and attractive tool for gene inactivation, complementary to the classical antisense and co-suppression approaches.     

Recombinant immunotoxins and retargeted killer cells: employing engineered antibody fragments for tumor-specific targeting of cytotoxic effectors

Over the past years, monoclonal antibodies have attracted enormous interest as targeted therapeutics, and a number of such reagents are in clinical use. However, responses could not be achieved in all patients with tumors expressing high levels of the respective target antigens, suggesting that other factors such as limited recruitment of endogenous immune effector mechanisms can also influence treatment outcome. This justifies the search for alternative, potentially more effective reagents. Antibody-toxins and cytolytic effector cells genetically modified to carry antibody-based receptors on the surface, represent such tailor-made targeting vehicles with the potential of improved tumor localization and enhanced efficacy. In this way, advances in recombinant antibody technology have made it possible to circumvent problems inherent in chemical coupling of antibodies and toxins, and have allowed construction via gene fusion of recombinant molecules which combine antibody-mediated recognition of tumor cells with specific delivery of potent protein toxins of bacterial or plant origin. Likewise, recombinant antibody fragments provide the basis for the construction of chimeric antigen receptors that, upon expression in cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) or natural killer (NK) cells, link antibody-mediated recognition of tumor antigens with these effector cells potent cytolytic activities, thereby making them promising cellular therapeutics for adoptive cancer therapy. Here, general principles for the derivation of cytotoxic proteins and effector cells with antibody-dependent tumor specificity are summarized, and current strategies to employ these molecules and cells for directed cancer therapy are discussed, focusing mainly on the tumor-associated antigens epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and the closely related ErbB2 (HER2) as targets.This work was presented at the first Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Summer School, 8–13 September 2003, Ionian Village, Bartholomeio, Peloponnese, Greece.     

Engineering disulfide bonds within an antibody

Antibodies have evolved to function in oxidative, extracellular environments. A pair of cysteines in close proximity will oxidatively react to form a disulfide bond that fixes and stabilizes the tertiary structure of a protein. Immunoglobulin G (IgG) includes several disulfide bonds, and the patterns of inter-chain disulfide bonds characterize different IgG sub-classes. Moreover, the Ig-fold domains are characterized by a buried intra-domain disulfide bond, which is important for its structural stability. However, the intra-domain disulfide bond can be replaced without crucial effects on the structure and function, if the domain structure is intrinsically stable or has been stabilized by protein engineering. In previous studies, disulfide bonds were removed by amino-acid substitution indicating that Val and/or Ala (i.e. Ala–Ala, Ala–Val, Val–Ala, and Val–Ala) pairs were preferred for cysteine replacement in the Ig-fold domain. As such, these mutations may be useful for the intracellular use of antibodies. Recently, additional intra-domain disulfide bonds have been shown to stabilize Ig-fold domains and whole IgGs. In heavy chain variable or light chain variable domains, the introduction of additional disulfide bonds into the framework region did not reduce antigen-binding affinity, suggesting that generating disulfide bonds may be a method for stabilizing IgG and antibody fragments, such as the antigen-binding fragment, and single-chain and single-domain antibodies. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Recent advances in molecular engineering of antibody.     

Expression of recombinant human antibody fragments capable of inhibiting the phospholipase and myotoxic activities of Bothrops jararacussu venom

Phospholipases A₂ are components of Bothrops venoms responsible for disruption of cell membrane integrity via hydrolysis of its phospholipids. This study used a large nonimmune human scFv library named Griffin.1 (MRC, Cambridge, UK) for selection of recombinant antibodies against antigens present in Bothrops jararacussu venom and identification of specific antibodies able to inhibit phospholipase activity. Four clones were identified as capable of inhibiting this activity in vitro. These clones were able to reduce in vivo the myotoxic activity of BthTX-I and BthTX-II PLA₂, but had no effect on the in vitro anticoagulant activity of BthTX-II. This work shows the potential of using recombinant scFv libraries in the search for antibodies that neutralize relevant venom components.     

Improving the stability of an antibody variable fragment by a combination of knowledge-based approaches: validation and mechanisms

Numerous approaches have been described to obtain variable fragments of antibodies (Fv or scFv) that are sufficiently stable for their applications. Here, we combined several knowledge-based methods to increase the stability of pre-existing scFvs by design. Firstly, the consensus sequence approach was used in a non-stringent way to predict a large basic set of potentially stabilizing mutations. These mutations were then prioritized by other methods of design, mainly the formation of additional hydrogen bonds, an increase in the hydrophilicity of solvent exposed residues, and previously described mutations in other antibodies. We validated this combined method with antibody mAbD1.3, directed against lysozyme. Fourteen potentially stabilizing mutations were designed and introduced into scFvD1.3 by site-directed mutagenesis, either individually or in combinations. We characterized the effects of the mutations on the thermodynamic stability of scFvD1.3 by experiments of unfolding with urea, monitored by spectrofluorometry, and tested the additivity of their effects by double-mutant cycles. We also quantified the individual contributions of the resistance to denaturation ([urea](1/2)) and cooperativity of unfolding (m) to the variations of stability and the energy of coupling between mutations by a novel approach. Most mutations (75%) were stabilizing and none was destabilizing. The progressive recombination of the mutations into the same molecule of scFvD1.3 showed that their effects were mostly additive or synergistic, provided a large overall increase in protein stability (9.1 kcal/mol), and resulted in a highly stable scFvD1.3 derivative. The mechanisms of the mutations and of their combinations involved variations in the resistance to denaturation, cooperativity of unfolding, and likely residual structures of the denatured state, which was constrained by two disulfide bonds. This combined method should be applicable to any recombinant antibody fragment, through a single step of mutagenesis.