A NOVEL HLA-A DETERMINANT RECOGNIZED BY A CYTOTOXIC HUMAN HYBRIDOMA IGG1 MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODY (TRJ14)
TISSUE ANTIGENS
Authors: GE, J; BRATLIE, A; HANNESTAD, K
Abstract
TrJ14 is a cytotoxic human IgG1 lambda hybridoma mAb that recognized a novel HLA-A epitope expressed by lymphoblastoid B cells that are homo- or heterozygous for A2, A3, A11, A30, A31, A33, A68 and A69. Based on these results, the HLA type of cell line TEM (10w9057) was retyped as A66. When peripheral blood T cells isolated freshly from 265 HLA-typed normal individuals served as targets, TrJ14 killed cells expressing two TrJ14-positive HLA-A alleles, as well as the majority of cells having one TrJ14-positive and one TrJ14-negative HLA-A antigen. However, TrJ14 failed to recognize or reacted weakly with most HLA-A2 and A3 heterozygous normal T cells when A2 or A3 was coexpressed together with a TrJ14-negative antigen. The serological reactivity of TrJ14 correlated with the amino acid valine and aspartic acid at positions 76 and 77 of the alpha 1-domain helix. These amino acids were shared exclusively by all the identified TrJ14(+) alleles.
Functional humanization of an anti-CD16 Fab fragment: obstacles of switching from murine lambda to human lambda or kappa light chains
PROTEIN ENGINEERING DESIGN & SELECTION
Authors: Schlapschy, Martin; Fogarasi, Marton; Gruber, Helga; Gresch, Oliver; Schaefer, Claudia; Aguib, Yasmine; Skerra, Arne
Abstract
An alpha CD30x alpha CD16 bispecific monoclonal antibody (MAb) was previously shown to induce remission of Hodgkin's disease refractory to chemo- and radiotherapy through specific activation of natural killer (NK) cells, but the appearance of a human anti-mouse antibody (HAMA) response prevented its use for prolonged therapy. Here, we describe an effort to humanize the Fab arm directed against Fc gamma RIII (CD16), which-025EFin context with the previously humanized CD30 Fab fragment-025EFprovides the necessary component for the design of a clinically useful bispecific antibody. Thus, the CDRs of the anti-CD16 mouse IgG1/lambda MAb A9 were grafted onto human Ig sequences. In a first attempt, the murine V-lambda domain was converted to a humanized lambda chain, which led, however, to complete loss of antigen-binding activity and extremely poor folding efficiency upon periplasmic expression in Escherichia coli. Hence, its CDRs were transplanted onto a human kappa light chain in a second attempt, which resulted in a functional recombinant Fab fragment, yet with 100-fold decreased antigen affinity. In the next step, an in vitro affinity maturation was performed, wherein random mutations were introduced into the humanized V-H and V-kappa domains through error-prone PCR, followed by a filter sandwich colony screening assay for increased binding activity towards the bacterially produced extracellular CD16 fragment. Finally, an optimized Fab fragment was obtained, which carries nine additional amino acid exchanges and exhibits an affinity that is within a factor of 2 identical to that of the original murine A9 Fab fragment. The resulting humanized Fab fragment was fully functional with respect to binding of the recombinant CD16 antigen in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and in cytofluorimetry with CD16-positive granulocytes, thus providing a promising starting point for the preparation of a fully human bispecific antibody that permits the therapeutic recruitment of NK cells.