Use of weak monoclonal antibodies for affinity chromatography

Lipodisks integrated with weak affinity chromatography enable fragment screening of integral membrane proteins

Membrane proteins constitute the largest class of drug targets but they present many challenges in drug discovery.

Analysis of biomolecular interactions using affinity microcolumns: a review

Affinity chromatography has become an important tool for characterizing biomolecular interactions. The use of affinity microcolumns, which contain immobilized binding agents and have volumes in the mid-to-low microliter range, has received particular attention in recent years. Potential advantages of affinity microcolumns include the many analysis and detection formats that can be used with these columns, as well as the need for only small amounts of supports and immobilized binding agents. This review examines how affinity microcolumns have been used to examine biomolecular interactions. Both capillary-based microcolumns and short microcolumns are considered. The use of affinity microcolumns with zonal elution and frontal analysis methods are discussed. The techniques of peak decay analysis, ultrafast affinity extraction, split-peak analysis, and band-broadening studies are also explored. The principles of these methods are examined and various applications are provided to illustrate the use of these methods with affinity microcolumns. It is shown how these techniques can be utilized to provide information on the binding strength and kinetics of an interaction, as well as on the number and types of binding sites. It is further demonstrated how information on competition or displacement effects can be obtained by these methods.

Transiently binding antibody fragments against Lewis x and sialyl-Lewis x

Biomolecular recognition is often characterised by low affinity where many weak interactions work either alone or in concert, resulting in an inherent dynamic situation. For example the well-studied weak binding of cell-cell interactions is predominantly based on a range of carbohydrates that interact with numerous (protein) ligands. Finding appropriate binders to these carbohydrate structures may pave the way for new analytical strategies based on low affinity, and recombinant antibody technology is a promising approach to the development of such reagents. We have in the present study characterised two low affinity human single chain antibody fragments (scFv) by surface plasmon resonance for use in such applications. The two clones, LeX1 and sLeX10, had been selected from a naive phage display library against Lewis x (Le(x)) and sialyl Le(x) (sLe(x)), respectively. Both LeX1 and sLeX10 showed low affinity, with K(D) values of 3.5+/-0.7 x 10(-5) M for Le(x) and 2.6+/-0.7 x 10(-5) M for sLe(x), respectively. Kinetic studies revealed the scFvs to be associated with fast dissociation rates, with Kd values higher than 0.1 s(-1) for both LeX1 and sLeX10. Apart from the Lewis structures Le(x) and sLe(x), we investigated the conformational isomers Lewis a and sialyl-Lewis a together with the monosaccharide units of the Lewis structures, and both scFvs showed high specificity for their respective carbohydrate. Taking these observations together we have demonstrated that scFv with fast reaction kinetics and low affinity have the necessary characteristics for further development as specific tools in analytical strategies, e.g. differentiation of cells based on the various configurations of carbohydrate epitopes.

Isolation of antigens and antibodies by affinity chromatography

Antibody-antigen binding constants are commonly strong enough for an effective affinity purification of antibodies (by immobilized antigens) or antigens (by immobilized antibodies) to work out a straightforward purification method. A drawback is that antibodies are large protein molecules and subject to denaturation under conditions required for the elution from the complex. Structures of antigens can vary but usually antigens are also equally subject to similar problems. The lability of the components can sometimes make the procedure sophisticated, but usually in all cases it is possible to find a satisfactory approach. In certain cases, specific interactions of the Fc part of antibodies are more facile to exploit for their purification.

Applications of novel affinity cassette methods: use of peptide fusion handles for the purification of recombinant proteins

In this article, recent progress related to the use of different types of polypeptide fusion handles or 'tags' for the purification of recombinant proteins are critically discussed. In addition, novel aspects of the molecular cassette concept are elaborated, together with areas of potential application of these fundamental principles in molecular recognition. As evident from this review, the use of these concepts provides a powerful strategy for the high throughput isolation and purification of recombinant proteins and their derived domains, generated from functional genomic or zeomic studies, as part of the bioprocess technology leading to their commercial development, and in the study of molecular recognition phenomena per se. In addition, similar concepts can be exploited for high sensitivity analysis and detection, for the characterisation of protein bait/prey interactions at the molecular level, and for the immobilisation and directed orientation of proteins for use as biocatalysts/biosensors.