High-Affinity Antibody Detection with a Bivalent Circularized Peptide Containing Antibody-Binding Domains

Expression and Characterization of Intein-Cyclized Trimer of Staphylococcus aureus Protein A Domain Z

Staphylococcus aureus protein A (SpA) is an IgG Fc-binding virulence factor that is widely used in antibody purification and as a scaffold to develop affinity molecules. A cyclized SpA Z domain could offer exopeptidase resistance, reduced chromatographic ligand leaching after single-site endopeptidase cleavage, and enhanced IgG binding properties by preorganization, potentially reducing conformational entropy loss upon binding. In this work, a Z domain trimer (Z3) was cyclized using protein intein splicing. Interactions of cyclic and linear Z3 with human IgG₁ were characterized by differential scanning fluorimetry (DSF), surface plasmon resonance (SPR), and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). DSF showed a 5 ℃ increase in IgG₁ melting temperature when bound by each Z3 variant. SPR showed the dissociation constants of linear and cyclized Z3 with IgG₁ to be 2.9 nM and 3.3 nM, respectively. ITC gave association enthalpies for linear and cyclic Z3 with IgG₁ of -33.0 kcal/mol and -32.7 kcal/mol, and -T∆S of association 21.2 kcal/mol and 21.6 kcal/mol, respectively. The compact cyclic Z3 protein contains 2 functional binding sites and exhibits carboxypeptidase Y-resistance. The results suggest cyclization as a potential approach toward more stable SpA-based affinity ligands, and this analysis may advance our understanding of protein engineering for ligand and drug development.

Affinity-Based Methods for Site-Specific Conjugation of Antibodies

Conjugation of various reagents to antibodies has long been an elegant way to combine the superior binding features of the antibody with other desired but non-natural functions. Applications range from labels for detection in different analytical assays to the creation of new drugs by conjugation to molecules which improves the pharmaceutical effect. In many of these applications, it has been proven advantageous to control both the site and the stoichiometry of the conjugation to achieve a homogeneous product with predictable, and often also improved, characteristics. For this purpose, many research groups have, during the latest decade, reported novel methods and techniques, based on small molecules, peptides, and proteins with inherent affinity for the antibody, for site-specific conjugation of antibodies. This review provides a comprehensive overview of these methods and their applications and also describes a historical perspective of the field.

Stability Enhancement of a Dimeric HER2-Specific Affibody Molecule through Sortase A-Catalyzed Head-to-Tail Cyclization

Natural backbone-cyclized proteins have an increased thermostability and resistance towards proteases, characteristics that have sparked interest in head-to-tail cyclization as a method to stability-enhance proteins used in diagnostics and therapeutic applications, for example. In this proof-of principle study, we have produced and investigated a head-to-tail cyclized and HER2-specific ZHER2:342 Affibody dimer. The sortase A-mediated cyclization reaction is highly efficient (>95%) under optimized conditions, and renders a cyclic ZHER3:342-dimer with an apparent melting temperature, Tm, of 68 °C, which is 3 °C higher than that of its linear counterpart. Circular dichroism spectra of the linear and cyclic dimers looked very similar in the far-UV range, both before and after thermal unfolding to 90 °C, which suggests that cyclization does not negatively impact the helicity or folding of the cyclic protein. The cyclic dimer had an apparent sub-nanomolar affinity (Kd ~750 pM) to the HER2-receptor, which is a ~150-fold reduction in affinity relative to the linear dimer (Kd ~5 pM), but the anti-HER2 Affibody dimer remained a high-affinity binder even after cyclization. No apparent difference in proteolytic stability was detected in an endopeptidase degradation assay for the cyclic and linear dimers. In contrast, in an exopeptidase degradation assay, the linear dimer was shown to be completely degraded after 5 min, while the cyclic dimer showed no detectable degradation even after 60 min. We further demonstrate that a site-specifically DyLight 594-labeled cyclic dimer shows specific binding to HER2-overexpressing cells. Taken together, the results presented here demonstrate that head-to-tail cyclization can be an effective strategy to increase the stability of an Affibody dimer.