| Literature DB >> 35871543 |
Rahel Frick1,2,3, Lene S Høydahl1,2,4, Ina Hodnebrug1,2, Erik S Vik5, Bjørn Dalhus6,7, Ludvig M Sollid1,4, Jeffrey J Gray8,9,10, Inger Sandlie1,2, Geir Åge Løset1,2,5.
Abstract
TCR-like antibodies represent a unique type of engineered antibodies with specificity toward pHLA, a ligand normally restricted to the sensitive recognition by T cells. Here, we report a phage display-based sequential development path of such antibodies. The strategy goes from initial lead identification through in silico informed CDR engineering in combination with framework engineering for affinity and thermostability optimization, respectively. The strategy allowed the identification of HLA-DQ2.5 gluten peptide-specific TCR-like antibodies with low picomolar affinity. Our method outlines an efficient and general method for development of this promising class of antibodies, which should facilitate their utility including translation to human therapy.Entities:
Keywords: antibody; celiac disease; phage display
Mesh:
Substances:
Year: 2022 PMID: 35871543 PMCID: PMC9536190 DOI: 10.1093/protein/gzac005
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Protein Eng Des Sel ISSN: 1741-0126 Impact factor: 1.952
Fig. 1Fv-pHLA model and library design. (A) Low-scoring models suggest a diagonal binding mode across the antigen-binding groove. (B) All six CDR loops were analyzed regarding their putative contribution to both peptide and HLA binding and their potential for improvement. The CDR loops as well as potentially crucial contacts in the pHLA are shown in stick representation and interacting residues are annotated.
Fig. 2Selection and screening of antibody libraries. (A) Overview of the selection strategy. Libraries were packaged with either M13K07 or DeltaPhage helper phages to achieve LV and HV display, respectively. After R1, the libraries were selected in a competition branch and a thermostability branch in parallel. (B) Polyclonal phage ELISA to assess enrichment of binders against HLA-DQ2.5:DQ2.5-glia-α1a in the phage outputs after R1-R3. HLA-DQ2.5:CLIP2, which was used for negative selection, was used to monitor HLA-DQ2.5 binding irrespective of peptide. (C and D) The selection outputs after three rounds of panning were screened in HV format (C) and scFv format (D) to assess binding to target pHLA complexes and HLA-DQ2.5:CLIP2 (background) in ELISA and signal/noise ratios were calculated. Each dot represents one clone. Gray dots denote unknown sequences, black dots denote unique amino acid sequences and colors represent enriched sequences. Both libraries were selected in the thermostability branch. (E) Binding of purified Fab fragments (5 μg/mL) to different HLA-DQ2.5:peptide complexes was assessed by ELISA. Error bars illustrate mean ± SD of duplicates (n = 2). Alignment of 9mer core peptide sequences is shown on the right.
Fig. 3Biophysical characterization of leads. (A) Binding of Fab fragments to HLA-DQ2.5:DQ2.5-glia-α1a by SPR. Fabs were ranked based on off-rates. The parent clone 107 is shown in blue (n = 2). (B) Melting temperatures (Tm) of the parent clone 107 (blue) and the affinity matured Fab fragments. Error bars illustrate mean ± SD of 3–7 replicates. Statistical analysis was performed by unpaired two-tailed t-test, ****P < 0.0001. (C) Representative sensorgrams of 4.7C and combination variant 4.7Cplus (n ≥ 2). Data were fitted to a 1:1 Langmuir binding model (dotted gray lines). (D) Table detailing position of mutations, library origin and Kd value of the individual clones. FR, framework; NA, not applicable. (E) The locations of the mutations present in the combination mutant 4.7Cplus are illustrated as spheres. VH contains the following mutations: CDR H1 Asn 31A Ser and CDR H3 Ser 96 Arg, Ser 97 Thr and Ser 98 Thr. VL contains the following mutations: FR1 Ile 2 Val, FR3 Ile 53 Val and CDR L3 Asp 90 Asn. The Fv model is based on mAb 107. (F) The candidate antibodies were reformatted to full-length hIgG1 (0.5 μg/mL) and binding to a panel of related soluble peptide:HLA-DQ2.5:gliadin complexes or controls was analysed by ELISA. Error bars illustrate mean ± SD of duplicates (n = 3).
Fig. 4The lead mAbs bind pHLA specifically on a cell surface. Murine A20 B cells engineered to express HLA-DQ2.5 with covalently linked peptide were stained with 107, 4.7C or 4.7Cplus hIgG1 or a hIgG1 isotype control mAb (5 μg/mL). (A) Histograms show mAb binding to A20 HLA-DQ2.5 with DQ2.5-glia-α1a (TCR-like mAbs in blue, isotype mAb in turquoise), DQ2.5-glia-α2 (black) or CLIP2 (gray) (n = 2). (B) MFI of mAb binding to the complete panel of A20 B cells expressing different pHLAs; 2.12.E11 mIgG1 was included as control (n = 2). (C) Binding slopes of mAbs 107, 4.7C and 4.7Cplus binding to A20 B cells expressing HLA-DQ2.5 with DQ2.5-glia-α1a. mAbs were titrated from 16.5 nM (4-fold dilution) and binding was analyzed by flow cytometry and visualized as MFI values. Error bars illustrate mean ± SD of duplicates (n = 2–4).