A catalytic antibody that accelerates the hydrolysis of carbonate esters. Prediction of the binding-site structure of the substrate.

Monoclonal antibodies catalyzing the hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl alkyl carbonate were obtained using p-nitrophenyl phosphonate as hapten. One of the antibodies, 4A1, has a relatively high activity for the substrate having a bulky group. To determine the amino acid residues related to the binding of the bulky group, we determined the amino acid sequences of VL and VH regions of 4A1 by the cycle sequencing method, built the three-dimensional structure of the V regions, labeled 4A1 with [14C]phenyl glyoxal in the presence and absence of I-1 or I-13, and analyzed the labeled incubation mixture with SDS-PAGE. From these results, the possibility that Arg-H28 of the heavy chain is involved in binding the bulky group of the substrate is discussed.