Bacterial expression and purification of recombinant bovine Fab fragments.

We have previously described a recombinant phagemid expression vector, pComBov, designed for the production of native sequence bovine monoclonal antibodies (mAb) generated by antibody phage display. Bovine mAb Fab fragments isolated from libraries constructed using pComBov in Escherichia coli strain XL1-Blue, which is routinely used for antibodies expressed on the surface of phage, were expressed at very low yields. Therefore, a study was undertaken to determine optimal growth conditions for maximal expression of bovine Fab fragments in E. coli. By varying the E. coli strain, and the temperature and length of the culture growth, we were able to substantially increase the yield of soluble Fab fragments. A high yield of Fab fragments was found in the culture growth medium, which enabled us to devise a rapid and simple single-step method for the purification of native (nondenatured) Fabs based on immobilized metal affinity chromatography against a six-histidine amino acid carboxyl-terminal extension of the heavy-chain constant region. Using these methods we were able to express and purify antigen-specific bovine Fab fragments from E. coli.     

A phagemid vector using the E. coli phage shock promoter facilitates phage display of toxic proteins

Phage display is a powerful tool with which to adapt the specificity of protease inhibitors. To this end, a library of variants of the potato protease inhibitor PI2 was introduced in a canonical phagemid vector. Although PI2 is a natural trypsin inhibitor, we were unable to select trypsin-binding variants from the library. Instead, only mutants carrying deletions or amber stop codons were found. Bacteria carrying these mutations had a much faster growth rate than those carrying the wt PI2-encoding gene, even when the promoter was repressed. To overcome these problems, two new phagemid vectors for g3-mediated phage display were constructed. The first vector has a lower plasmid copy number, as compared to the canonical vector. Bacteria harboring this new vector are much less affected by the presence of the PI2-g3 fusion gene, which appears from a markedly reduced growth retardation. A second vector was equipped with the promoter of the Escherichia coli psp operon, instead of the lac promoter, to control the PI2-g3 gene fusion expression. The psp promoter is induced upon helper phage infection. A phagemid vector with this promoter controlling a PI2-g3 gene fusion did not affect the viability of the host. Furthermore, both new vectors were shown to produce phage particles that display the inhibitor protein and were therefore considered suitable for phage display. The inhibitor library was introduced in both new vectors. Trypsin-binding phages with inhibitory sequences were selected, instead of sequences with stop codons or deletions. This demonstrates the usefulness of these new vectors for phage display of proteins that affect the viability of E. coli.     

Adapter-Directed Display: A Modular Design for Shuttling Display on Phage Surfaces

A novel adapter-directed phage display system was developed with modular features. In this system, the target protein is expressed as a fusion protein consisting of adapter GR1 from the phagemid vector, while the recombinant phage coat protein is expressed as a fusion protein consisting of adapter GR2 in the helper phage vector. Surface display of the target protein is accomplished through specific heterodimerization of GR1 and GR2 adapters, followed by incorporation of the heterodimers into phage particles. A series of engineered helper phages were constructed to facilitate both display valency and formats, based on various phage coat proteins. As the target protein is independent of a specific phage coat protein, this modular system allows the target protein to be displayed on any given phage coat protein and allows various display formats from the same vector without the need for reengineering. Here, we demonstrate the shuttling display of a single-chain Fv antibody on phage surfaces between multivalent and monovalent formats, as well as the shuttling display of an antigen-binding fragment molecule on phage coat proteins pIII, pVII, and pVIII using the same phagemid vectors combined with different helper phage vectors. This adapter-directed display concept has been applied to eukaryotic yeast surface display and to a novel cross-species display that can shuttle between prokaryotic phage and eukaryotic yeast systems.     

A step-wise approach significantly enhances protein yield of a rationally-designed agonist antibody fragment in E. coli

Fab59 is a rationally-designed antibody fragment (Fab) that mimics the activity of the cytokine thrombopoietin (TPO). Fab59 activity was initially detected directly from bacterial supernatants in a cell-based assay and was subsequently estimated to be equipotent to TPO using purified material. However, the expression of Fab59 was insufficient to support in vivo characterization of the Fab due to extremely low expression levels from its initial phage display expression vector. To boost expression, a new expression vector was designed and constructed, and Fab59 light chain codons were optimized for bacterial expression. However, from this a new challenge arose, in that the codon-optimized Fab59 was more toxic to Escherichia coli cells than parental Fab59. Co-expression of the bacterial chaperon protein Skp alleviated this toxicity. A two-step purification method was used to isolate monomeric Fab59 from the periplasm. Although Fab59 was prone to form aggregates during the purification process, buffer modification efficiently eliminated this problem. Overall, optimization of Fab59 expression and purification achieved a 100-fold increase in Fab59 production in E. coli relative to the starting yield. The yield of purified monomeric Fab59 from a shake flask reached up to 3.5mg/L, which was sufficient to support testing of the agonist activity of purified monomeric Fab59 in vivo. Even higher yields may be achieved by purification of Fab present in the culture media, as Skp most significantly increased accumulation of Fab59 in that location.     

Construction and characterization of phage-displayed leukocyte surface molecule CD99

The phage display technique has been described for the production of various recombinant molecules. In the present report, we used this technique to display a leukocyte surface molecule, CD99. PCR subcloning of CD99 cDNA from the mammalian expression vector pCDM8 to the phagemid expression vector pComb3HSS was performed. The resulting phagemid, pComb3H-CD99, was transformed into Escherichia coli XL-1 Blue. CD99 was displayed on the phage particles following infection of the transformed E. coli with the filamentous phage VCSM13. Using sandwich ELISA, the filamentous phage-displayed CD99 was captured by a CD99 monoclonal antibody (mAb) then detected with anti-M13 conjugated to horseradish peroxidase, confirming that the CD99 molecule was displayed on the phage particles. The CD99-phages inhibited induction of Jurkat cell aggregation by CD99 mAb MT99/1. Proper folding of the displayed CD99 bioactive domain was inferred from this finding. Our results demonstrate that the phage display technique can be applied to the generation of full-length CD99 molecules. The phage carrying this cell surface protein will be useful for identification of its counter receptor or ligand.     

High-throughput affinity ranking of antibodies using surface plasmon resonance microarrays

A method was developed to rapidly identify high-affinity human antibodies from phage display library selection outputs. It combines high-throughput Fab fragment expression and purification with surface plasmon resonance (SPR) microarrays to determine kinetic constants (kon and koff) for 96 different Fab fragments in a single experiment. Fabs against human tissue kallikrein 1 (hK1, KLK1 gene product) were discovered by phage display, expressed in Escherichia coli in batches of 96, and purified using protein A PhyTip columns. Kinetic constants were obtained for 191 unique anti-hK1 Fabs using the Flexchip SPR microarray device. The highest affinity Fabs discovered had dissociation constants of less than 1 nM. The described SPR method was also used to categorize Fabs according to their ability to recognize an apparent active site epitope. The ability to rapidly determine the affinities of hundreds of antibodies significantly accelerates the discovery of high-affinity antibody leads.     

Tandem gene amplification in vitro for rapid and efficient expression in animal cells

Plasmid vectors pHSG293 and pHSG747, suitable for in vitro gene amplification for subsequent animal-cell expression, were developed. A cosmid vector pHSG293 confers Km resistance to Escherichia coli host cells and G418 resistance to animal cells and contains a single BstXI recognition/cleavage site, CCACGGGG/CTGG, near the cos site (the recognition site is underlined). The cassette vector plasmid pHSG747 contains a multiple cloning site (MCS) between the simian virus 40 early promoter and the poly(A) signal sequence flanked by the same BstXI sites and confers Cm resistance to E. coli host cells. After inserting a coding fragment for human protein C or its derivative in the appropriate orientation in the MCS of pHSG747, the BstXI expression unit fragment was purified, mixed with BstXI-digested pHSG293 DNA at a molecular ratio of 20 to 40:1 and ligated. This allowed for tandem gene amplification due to asymmetric cohesive ends. Ligation products were packaged in lambda phage particles, amplified in E. coli cells as large cosmid molecules, and then introduced into CHO cells. G418R transformants were found to produce and secrete recombinant protein molecules at a high level. The plasmid vectors developed in this work will provide a rapid screening system useful for protein engineering in animal cells.     

Neutralizing chimeric mouse-human antibodies against Burkholderia pseudomallei protease: expression, purification and characterization

A recombinant Fab monoclonal antibody (Fab) C37, previously obtained by phage display and biopanning of a random antibody fragment library against Burkholderia pseudomallei protease, was expressed in different strains of Escherichia coli. E. coli strain HB2151 was deemed a more suitable host for Fab expression than other E. coli strains when grown in media supplemented with 0.2 % glycerol. The expressed Fab fragment was purified by affinity chromatography on a Protein G-Sepharose column, and the specificity of the recombinant Fab C37 towards B. pseudomallei protease was proven by Western blotting, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and by proteolytic activity neutralization. In addition, polyclonal antibodies against B. pseudomallei protease were produced in rabbits immunized with the protease. These were isolated from high titer serum by affinity chromatography on recombinant-Protein A-Sepharose. Purified polyclonal antibody specificity towards B. pseudomallei protease was proven by Western blotting and ELISA.     

Construction of human Fab (gamma1/kappa) library and identification of human monoclonal Fab possessing neutralizing potency against Japanese encephalitis virus

A combinatorial human Fab library was constructed using RNAs from peripheral blood lymphocytes obtained from Japanese encephalitis virus hyper-immune volunteers on pComb3H phagemid vector. The size of the constructed Fab library was 3.3x10(8) Escherichia coli transformants. The library was panned 3 times on the purified Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) virion, and phage clones displaying JEV antigen-specific Fab were enriched. The enriched phage pool was then screened for clones producing Fab molecule with JEV neutralizing activity by the focus reduction-neutralizing test. Among 188 randomly selected clones, 9 Fab preparations revealed neutralizing activities against JEV strain Nakayama. An E. coli transformed with TJE12B02 clone, which produced human monoclonal Fab with the highest neutralizing activity was cultured in a large scale, and the Fab molecule was purified using affinity chromatography. The purified FabTJE12B02 showed the 50% focus reduction endpoint at the concentration of 50.2 microg/ml (ca. 1,000 nM) when JEV strain Nakayama was used. The FabTJE12B02 recognized E protein of JEV strain Nakayama, and the dissociation equilibrium constant (Kd) of the FabTJE12B02 against purified JEV antigen was calculated as 1.21x10(-8) M. Sequence analysis demonstrated that TJE12B02 used a VH sequence homologous to the VH3 family showing 88.8% homology to germline VH3-23, and used a Vkappa sequence homologous to the VkappaII subgroup showing 92.8% homology to germline A17.     

抗破伤风类毒素单抗可变区基因的克隆及在大肠杆菌中表达的三种工程抗体

The heavy and light chain variable region genes of anti-tetanus toxoid (TT) antibody and the heavy chain Fd genes were amplified and cloned through RT-PCR from mouse hybridoma cells. The sequences of VH and VK were determined. Fd gene fragments were expressed in E. coli. The ELISA results indicated that the expressed Fd showed antigen binding activity but was nonspecific. Furthermore, through SOE and PCR techniques, the VH and VK gene fragments together with ScFv linker were assembled into single chain antibody (ScFv) gene fragment. While together with human heavy chain CH 1 gene fragment and Fab linker, they were assembled into chimeric Fab gene fragment. The two assembled gene fragments were separately inserted into phagemid pHEN 1, which was a fd-based vector containing gene 3 encoding the minor coat protein. In presence of helper phage M 13-VCS the anti-TT phage-ScFv or phage-Fab were displayed on the surface of phage particles respectively. Results from phage-ELISA indicated that both phage antibodies were TT-specific.     

Production of soluble ScFvs with C-terminal-free thiol for site-specific conjugation or stable dimeric ScFvs on demand

ScFv recombinant antibody fragments can provide specific tumor binding modules for targeting drugs. In the process of building multimeric tumor targeting pharmaceuticals, a prerequisite is the conservation of functional scFv antigen binding domains, thereby excluding scFv random conjugation to a carrier molecule or to another scFv. The pCANTAB 5E phage display/expression vector was genetically engineered to express any scFv gene as scFv with an additional C-terminal cysteine (scFv-Cys) such that the specific conjugation site is removed from the binding domain. Selected scFvs derived from an anti-MUC-1 scFv phage library were expressed in pCANTAB 5E and its modified version pCANTAB 5E Cys vectors, and compared for key characteristics. Production yields of scFv and scFv-Cys in shaker flask and biofermentor were compared. In the absence of a reducing agent, stable dimers (covalent scFv homodimers (scFv-Cys)2) were the major form of scFv-Cys. These diabodies provided substantial signal enhancement for immunohistochemical staining of tissues. In the presence of a reducing agent, scFv-Cys molecules remained monomeric, with the free SH available for conjugation to a PEG(maleimide)2 scaffold to form immunoreactive PEG(scFv)2 bioconjugates. ScFv expression from pCANTAB 5E Cys allowed for the production of soluble scFv-Cys protein from E.coli, either as stable scFv-Cys or (scFv-Cys)2. ScFv-Cys can be used for conjugation to PEG to form bivalent PEG (scFv-Cys)2 molecules or used as (scFv-Cys)2 for increased sensitivity in IHC.     

A phasmid shuttle vector for the cloning of complex operons in Salmonella

Phasmid (phage plasmid hybrid) P4 vir1 can be propagated in Escherichia coli as a helper-dependent lytic phage, as a plasmid, or as a prophage. On the basis of an understanding of these modes of propagation, derivatives of P4 have been constructed for use as cloning vectors. In this report we demonstrate that phasmid P4 (i) will propagate as a helper-dependent lytic phage and as a plasmid in Salmonella spp. and (ii) can be used as a high efficiency phage shuttle vector for the reversible transfer of cloned genes between Salmonella spp. and E. coli. For both E. coli and Salmonella spp., P4 phage-mediated gene transfer proved to be only 10-fold lower than plaquing efficiency. For the case of Salmonella spp., this frequency is ca. 10(4)-fold more efficient than is typically found for the transformation of DNA molecules. The usefulness of this cloning vector system for analyses of pathogenic virulence factors is demonstrated by the cloning and expression of both the P pilus adhesin operon and the hemolysin operon of uropathogenic E. coli.     

Use of the arabinose p(bad) promoter for tightly regulated display of proteins on bacteriophage

Phage display is a widely used method to optimize the binding characteristics of protein-ligand interactions. In addition, it has been used to clone genes from genomic and cDNA libraries based on their ligand-binding characteristics. One difficulty often encountered when expressing heterologous proteins by phage display is the toxicity of the protein on the Escherichia coli host. Previous studies have shown that heterologous protein expression can be tightly controlled using plasmids with the P(BAD) promoter of the arabinose operon of E. coli, and the araC gene, which is both a positive and negative regulator of the promoter. We constructed a set of phage display vectors that utilize the P(BAD) promoter to control the expression of proteins on the surface of the M13 bacteriophage. These vectors exhibit tightly controlled expression of proteins on the surface of the phage. In addition, the amount of protein displayed on the phage is modulated by the amount of arabinose present in the growth medium during phage propagation. This may be useful for altering the stringency of binding enrichment during phage display.     

The influence of antibody fragment format on phage display based affinity maturation of IgG

Today, most approved therapeutic antibodies are provided as immunoglobulin G (IgG), whereas small recombinant antibody formats are required for in vitro antibody generation and engineering during drug development. Particularly, single chain (sc) antibody fragments like scFv or scFab are well suited for phage display and bacterial expression, but some have been found to lose affinity during conversion into IgG.

In this study, we compared the influence of the antibody format on affinity maturation of the CD30-specific scFv antibody fragment SH313-F9, with the overall objective being improvement of the IgG. The variable genes of SH313-F9 were randomly mutated and then cloned into libraries encoding different recombinant antibody formats, including scFv, Fab, scFabΔC, and FabΔC. All tested antibody formats except Fab allowed functional phage display of the parental antibody SH313-F9, and the corresponding mutated antibody gene libraries allowed isolation of candidates with enhanced CD30 binding. Moreover, scFv and scFabΔC antibody variants retained improved antigen binding after subcloning into the single gene encoded IgG-like formats scFv-Fc or scIgG, but lost affinity after conversion into IgGs. Only affinity maturation using the Fab-like FabΔC format, which does not contain the carboxy terminal cysteines, allowed successful selection of molecules with improved binding that was retained after conversion to IgG. Thus, affinity maturation of IgGs is dependent on the antibody format employed for selection and screening. In this study, only FabΔC resulted in the efficient selection of IgG candidates with higher affinity by combination of Fab-like conformation and improved phage display compared with Fab.     

人源单克隆抗人免疫缺陷病毒1型抗体Fab段基因的获得

应用噬苏体抗体库技术有效地筛选出了多株抗ＨＩＶ－１人源单克隆抗体。以逆转录聚合酶链反应（ＲＴ－ＰＣＲ）从ＨＩＶ－１感染者外周血淋巴细胞中扩增抗体轻重链可变区基因,插入载体ｐＣＯＭＢ３,建立噬菌体抗体库。分别以ＨＩＶ－１ｇｐ１２０和ｇｐ１６０为固相抗原,经过多轮筛选,从中获得了多株抗ＨＩＶ－１ｇｐ４１、ｇｐ１２０和ｇｐ１６０的单克隆抗体Ｆａｂ段基因。抗ＨＩＶ特异性噬菌体抗体随抗体库的筛选高度富集,抗     

全人源化抗结肠癌单链抗体基因的克隆和表达

分离大肠癌患者外周血单个核细胞 (PBMC) ,在体外用灭活的大肠癌细胞再次致敏后 ,经EBV转化 ,然后用有限稀释法克隆分泌抗大肠癌细胞抗体的B细胞 ;多次PCR扩增和克隆其抗体可变区基因 (V_H/V_LcDNA) ,并用编码 (Gly₄Ser)₃ 的互补序列连接成ScFvcDNA(V_H linker V_L) ,经酶切克隆入载体fUSE 5RF ,使之呈现于噬菌体表面。通过用 3轮肿瘤细胞和正常人PBMC淘选后 ,ELISA检测 80%的单克隆噬菌体抗体显示了很强的阳性反应。以上结果初步说明 :联合应用体外致敏、EBV转化、PCR扩增和噬菌体呈现技术制备高亲和力全人源化的抗肿瘤抗体是可行的.     

Characterization of 11-dehydro-thromboxane B2 recombinant antibody obtained by phage display technology

Recombinant monoclonal antibodies specific for 11-dehydro-thromboxane B(2) (11D-TX) were isolated from the combinatorial libraries on a pComb3 phage-display vector using a magnetic cell sorting (MACS) system. The libraries were constructed from repertories of light and heavy-chains derived from the total RNA of 11D-TX conjugated keyhole limpet haemocyanin-immunized mice. Biotinylation of 11D-TX conjugated bovine serum albumin (BSA) was performed through free thiol groups on BSA using 1-biotinamido-4-[4'-(maleimidomethyl) cyclohexanecarboxamido] butane (Biotin-BMCC). Affinity bio-panning was performed to enrich the phage display libraries against biotinylated 11D-TX conjugated BSA with the MACS system. Results indicated that the selected anti-11D-TX Fab fragments expressed by E. coli exhibited a five-fold higher affinity for BSA conjugated 11D-TX compared to BSA alone and little specificity to other related compounds as determined by the binding assay and inhibition enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). This is the first report of an antibody against prostaglandin produced by phage display technology and also determination of the DNA sequence of this antibody. The MACS system was shown to be a simpler and more efficient method of panning than the conventional ELISA procedure. According to our results, we concluded that the phage display technique combined with the MACS system allowed the selection of the antibody with high affinity and some specificity.     

An approach for preventing recombination-deletion of the 40-50 anti-digoxin antibody V(H) gene from the phage display vector pComb3

Phage display has been used extensively in antibody (Ab) engineering. Sometimes, however, phage display vectors exhibit deletion of immunoglobulin (Ig) genes. As an approach to circumvent the recombination-deletion of the murine anti-digoxin Fab 40-50 cloned into the pComb3 vector, the vector was modified with short synthetic oligonucleotides by replacing a pelB leader sequence with a gene 3 (g3) leader sequence and by using a single lacZ promoter sequence. By this means, the N-terminal amino acids of the L chain and Fd remained unchanged, and a random HCDR3 library built on this newly designed vector did not exhibit the recombination-deletion.     

血管内皮细胞生长因子受体Flt-1结合小肽的融合表达及活性鉴定

血管内皮细胞生长因子 (VEGF)通过结合其酪氨酸激酶受体KDR、fms样酪氨酸激酶 1(Flt 1)调节新生血管形成 ;筛选能封闭VEGF结合Flt 1的小肽 ,可以通过阻断肿瘤血管形成 ,抑制实体瘤生长 .将从噬菌体 12肽库中筛选获得的 2个能与Flt 1结合的阳性噬菌体克隆 (F5 6和F90 )十二肽DNA(36bp)克隆到表达载体pQE4 2中 ,在大肠杆菌M15中稳定表达二氢叶酸还原酶融合蛋白(DHFR F5 6 F90 ) ,经变性、复性后得到纯度达 90 %的可溶性蛋白 .ELISA检测表明 ,DHFR F5 6 F90能结合可溶性受体sFlt 1和血管内皮细胞 ;12 5I VEGF竞争抑制实验显示 ,DHFR F5 6能竞争抑制VEGF同可溶性受体sFlt 1结合 .结果提示 ,F5 6可能是VEGF受体Flt 1的有效拮抗剂 ,具有抗肿瘤新生血管形成的潜在应用前景