Isolation of cross-reacting antigen candidates by mRNA-display using a mixed cDNA library.

The identification of cross-reacting antigens is an important process in the characterization of antibodies. We describe here the application of mRNA-display technology with a cDNA library for the isolation of cross-reacting antigens using a monoclonal antibody against human tumor protein p53 (hTP53) as a model. A mixed cDNA library constructed from mRNAs prepared from several human tissues and cell-lines was used for the mRNA-display. After several rounds of panning, five annotated polypeptides, topoisomeraseII-binding protein 1 (TOBP1), RAS protein activator like 2 isoform 1 (RASAL2), endosome-associated FYVE-domain protein (ZFYVE16), and utrophin (UTRN) as well as hTP53, were identified as cross-reactive antigen candidates. All of them had a consensus motif, -S-D-L-( )-K-L-, which was included in the known epitope of the antibody. They were synthesized in vitro, and their binding was compared by conducting a pull-down assay. In cross-activity to the antibody, they ranked as follows: ZYVE16 congruent with hTP53 congruent with TOBP1 > UTRN > RASAL2.