Development of a novel mammalian cell surface antibody display platform

A novel platform for antibody library selection in mammalian cells based on a growth signalobody

While many antibody-screening methods in vitro have been developed, these methods need repeated cycles of panning or sorting procedures to isolate antigen-specific antibodies. Here we developed a new antibody selection system based on antigen-dependent growth of mammalian cells. In this system, a growth signalobody library, which is a naïve single-chain Fv (scFv) library/cytokine receptor chimera that can transduce a growth signal in response to a specific antigen, is expressed in murine interleukin-3-dependent Ba/F3 cells. Simple culture of the cells in an antigen-containing medium results in growing cells with a high-affinity scFv gene, leading to selection of the scFv specific to the target antigen without panning/sorting procedures. To demonstrate this system, we used the SD1D2g signalobody having the signaling domain of gp130 and fluorescein-conjugated BSA as a target antigen, and investigated whether a fluorescein-specific scFv could be selected from a naïve scFv library. As a result, we successfully obtained fluorescein-binding scFv clones, and the scFv clone with the highest affinity was most abundantly selected, having the same sequence as the clone, which had been obtained through phage display. These results demonstrate the utility of our system as an affinity-based scFv selection method based on growth advantage of mammalian cells.

Gli protein activity is controlled by multisite phosphorylation in vertebrate Hedgehog signaling

Gli proteins are transcriptional effectors of the Hedgehog (Hh) pathway in both normal development and cancer. We describe a program of multisite phosphorylation that regulates the conversion of Gli proteins into transcriptional activators. In the absence of Hh ligands, Gli activity is restrained by the direct phosphorylation of six conserved serine residues by protein kinase A (PKA), a master negative regulator of the Hh pathway. Activation of signaling leads to a global remodeling of the Gli phosphorylation landscape: the PKA target sites become dephosphorylated, while a second cluster of sites undergoes phosphorylation. The pattern of Gli phosphorylation can regulate Gli transcriptional activity in a graded fashion, suggesting a phosphorylation-based mechanism for how a gradient of Hh signaling in a morphogenetic field can be converted into a gradient of transcriptional activity.

Therapeutic antibody engineering by high efficiency cell screening

In recent years, several cell-based screening technologies for the isolation of antibodies with prescribed properties emerged. They rely on the multi-copy display of antibodies or antibody fragments on a cell surface in functional form followed by high through put screening and isolation of cell clones that carry an antibody variant with the desired affinity, specificity, and stability. Particularly yeast surface display in combination with high-throughput fluorescence-activated cell sorting has proven successful in the last fifteen years as a very powerful technology that has some advantages over classical generation of monoclonals using the hybridoma technology or bacteriophage-based antibody display and screening. Cell-based screening harbours the benefit of single-cell online and real-time analysis and characterisation of individual library candidates. Moreover, when using eukaryotic expression hosts, intrinsic quality control machineries for proper protein folding and stability exist that allow for co-selection of high-level expression and stability simultaneously to the binding functionality. Recently, promising technologies emerged that directly rely on antibody display on higher eukaryotic cell lines using lentiviral transfection or direct screening on B-cells. The combination of immunisation, B-cell screening and next generation sequencing may open new avenues for the isolation of therapeutic antibodies with prescribed physicochemical and functional characteristics.

Simultaneous expression of displayed and secreted antibodies for antibody screen

The display of full-length antibody on the cell surface was achieved by fusing a transmembrane domain of the platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) to the C-terminus of the heavy chain constant region. We also incorporated a furin cleavage site between the constant region and PDGFR transmembrane domain to obtain secreted antibodies. As a result, antibodies can be expressed simultaneously on the cell surface in a membrane-anchored version for screening and selecting through fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis, as well as in conditioned medium in a secreted version for function analysis.

The B7-1 cytoplasmic tail enhances intracellular transport and mammalian cell surface display of chimeric proteins in the absence of a linear ER export motif

Membrane-tethered proteins (mammalian surface display) are increasingly being used for novel therapeutic and biotechnology applications. Maximizing surface expression of chimeric proteins on mammalian cells is important for these applications. We show that the cytoplasmic domain from the B7-1 antigen, a commonly used element for mammalian surface display, can enhance the intracellular transport and surface display of chimeric proteins in a Sar1 and Rab1 dependent fashion. However, mutational, alanine scanning and deletion analysis demonstrate the absence of linear ER export motifs in the B7 cytoplasmic domain. Rather, efficient intracellular transport correlated with the presence of predicted secondary structure in the cytoplasmic tail. Examination of the cytoplasmic domains of 984 human and 782 mouse type I transmembrane proteins revealed that many previously identified ER export motifs are rarely found in the cytoplasmic tail of type I transmembrane proteins. Our results suggest that efficient intracellular transport of B7 chimeric proteins is associated with the structure rather than to the presence of a linear ER export motif in the cytoplasmic tail, and indicate that short (less than ~ 10-20 amino acids) and unstructured cytoplasmic tails should be avoided to express high levels of chimeric proteins on mammalian cells.

A dual-mode surface display system for the maturation and production of monoclonal antibodies in glyco-engineered Pichia pastoris

State-of-the-art monoclonal antibody (mAb) discovery methods that utilize surface display techniques in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells require multiple steps of reformatting and switching of hosts to transition from display to expression. This results in a separation between antibody affinity maturation and full-length mAb production platforms. Here, we report for the first time, a method in Glyco-engineered Pichiapastoris that enables simultaneous surface display and secretion of full-length mAb molecules with human-like N-glycans using the same yeast cell. This paradigm takes advantage of homo-dimerization of the Fc portion of an IgG molecule to a surface-anchored "bait" Fc, which results in targeting functional “half” IgGs to the cell wall of Pichiapastoris without interfering with the secretion of full length mAb. We show the utility of this method in isolating high affinity, well-expressed anti-PCSK9 leads from a designed library that was created by mating yeasts containing either light chain or heavy chain IgG libraries. Coupled with Glyco-engineered Pichiapastoris, this method provides a powerful tool for the discovery and production of therapeutic human mAbs in the same host thus improving drug developability and potentially shortening the discovery time cycle.

Mammalian cell display for the discovery and optimization of antibody therapeutics

Recent advances are described for the isolation and affinity maturation of antibodies that couple in vitro somatic hypermutation (SHM) with mammalian cell display, replicating key aspects of the adaptive immune system. SHM is dependent on the action of the B cell specific enzyme, activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID). AID-directed SHM in vitro in non-B cells, combined with mammalian display of a library of human antibodies, initially naïve to SHM, can be used to isolate and affinity mature antibodies via iterative cycles of fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) under increasingly stringent sort conditions. SHM observed in vitro closely resembles SHM observed in human antibodies in vivo in both mutation type and positioning in the antibody variable region. In addition, existing antibodies originating from mouse immunization, in vivo based libraries, or alternative display technologies such as phage can also be affinity matured in a similar manner. The display system has been developed to enable simultaneous high-level cell surface expression and secretion of the same protein through alternate splicing, where the displayed protein phenotype remains linked to genotype, allowing soluble secreted antibody to be simultaneously characterized in biophysical and cell-based functional assays. This approach overcomes many of the previous limitations of mammalian cell display, enabling direct selection and maturation of antibodies as full-length, glycosylated IgGs.

Construction and development of a mammalian cell-based full-length antibody display library for targeting hepatocellular carcinoma

We present a detailed method for constructing a mammalian cell-based full-length antibody display library for targeting hepatocellular carcinoma. Two novel mammalian library vectors pcDNA3-CHm and pcDNA3-CLm were constructed that contained restriction enzyme sites NheI, ClaI and antibody constant domain. Mammalian expression vector pcDNA3-CHm contains IgG heavy-chain (HC) constant region and glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor (GPI) that could be anchored full-length antibodies on the surface of mammalian cells. GOLPH2 prokaryotic expression vector was carried out in Escherichia coli and purified by immobilized metal affinity chromatography. Variable domain of heavy-chain and variable domain of light-chain genes were respectively inserted into the vector pcDNA3-CHm and pcDNA3-CLm by ligation, and antibody libraries are displayed as whole IgG molecules on the cell surface by co-transfecting this HC-GPI with a light chain. By screening the cell library using magnetic beads and cell ELISA, the cell clone that displayed GOLPH2-specific antibodies on cell surfaces was identified. The mammalian cell-based antibody display library is a great potential application for displaying full-length functional antibodies of targeting hepatocellular carcinoma on the surface of mammalian cells. Anti-GOLPH2 display antibody was successfully isolated from the library.

Protein selection using yeast surface display

Binding proteins are typically isolated from combinatorial libraries of scaffold proteins using one of the many library screening tools available, such as phage display, yeast surface display or mRNA display. A key principle underlying these screening technologies is the establishment of a link between each unique mutant protein and its corresponding genetic code. The mutant proteins binding a desired target species are separated and subsequently identified using the genetic code. In this review, we largely focus on the use of yeast surface display for the isolation of binding proteins from combinatorial libraries. In yeast surface display, the yeast cell links the mutant protein to its coding DNA. Each yeast cell expresses the mutant proteins as fusions to a yeast cell wall protein; the yeast cell also carries plasmid DNA that codes for the mutant protein. Over the years, the yeast surface display platform has emerged as a powerful tool for protein engineering, and has been used in a variety of applications including affinity maturation, epitope mapping and biophysical characterization of proteins. Here we present a broad overview of the yeast surface display system and its applications, and compare it with other contemporary screening platforms. Further, we present detailed protocols for the use of yeast surface display to isolate de novo binding proteins from combinatorial libraries, and subsequent biophysical characterization of binders. These protocols can also be easily modified for affinity maturation of the isolated de novo binders.

Mammalian cell surface display of full length IgG

Display technology has been developed and widely used in antibody screening and selecting. While phage can only display antibody fragments, mammalian cells can display not only fragments but full-length antibodies. Here we described the display of full length antibody on the surface of 293 cells. Both heavy chain and light chain genes were cloned in a single mammalian expression vector containing dual mammalian expression cassettes. While transfected into 293 cells of the vector, both heavy and light chains were expressed. With the help of transmembrane domain of platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR-TM) fused at the 3'-end of heavy chain in frame, expressed full-length antibodies were displayed on the cell surface and can be easily detected and analyzed by flow cytometry.

Identification of HBsAg-specific antibodies from a mammalian cell displayed full-length human antibody library of healthy immunized donor

Hepatitis B immunoglobulin (HBIG) is important in the management of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Aiming to develop recombinant monoclonal antibodies as an alternative to HBIG, we report the successful identification of HBV surface antigen (HBsAg)-specific antibodies from a full-length human antibody library displayed on mammalian cell surface. Using total RNA of peripheral blood mononuclear cells of a natively immunized donor as template, the antibody repertoire was amplified. Combining four-way ligation and the Flp recombinase-mediated integration (Flp-In) system, we constructed a mammalian cell-based, fully human, full-length antibody display library in which each cell displayed only one kind of antibody molecule. By screening the cell library using fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS), eight cell clones that displayed HBsAg-specific antibodies on cell surfaces were identified. DNA sequence analysis of the antibody genes revealed three unique antibodies. FACS data indicated that fluorescent strength of expression (FSE), fluorescent strength of binding (FSB) and relative binding ability (RBA) were all different among them. These results demonstrated that by using our antibody mammalian display and screening platform, we can successfully identify antigen-specific antibodies from an immunized full-length antibody library. Therefore, this platform is very useful for the development of therapeutic antibodies.

Coupling mammalian cell surface display with somatic hypermutation for the discovery and maturation of human antibodies

A novel approach has been developed for the isolation and maturation of human antibodies that replicates key features of the adaptive immune system by coupling in vitro somatic hypermutation (SHM) with mammalian cell display. SHM is dependent on the action of the B cell specific enzyme, activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID), and can be replicated in non-B cells through expression of recombinant AID. A library of human antibodies, based on germline V-gene segments with recombined human regions was used to isolate low-affinity antibodies to human β nerve growth factor (hβNGF). These antibodies, initially naïve to SHM, were subjected to AID-directed SHM in vitro and selected using the same mammalian cell display system, as illustrated by the maturation of one of the antibodies to low pM K(D). This approach overcomes many of the previous limitations of mammalian cell display, enabling direct selection and maturation of antibodies as full-length, glycosylated IgGs.

Four-way ligation for construction of a mammalian cell-based full-length antibody display library

A unique four-way ligation strategy was developed for rapid construction of a full-length antibody library. A mammalian expression vector was constructed that contained dual mammalian expression cassettes and sequences recognized by the unique restriction enzymes BsmBI, BstXI, and SfiI. Both full-length light-chain and variable domain of heavy-chain genes were inserted into the vector in one step by four-way ligation, and full-length bivalent antibodies were displayed on mammalian cell surfaces. Using this strategy, only 2 weeks were required to successfully construct high-quality, full-length human antibody libraries.