Binding site on human immunoglobulin G for the affinity ligand HWRGWV

Strategies for Non-Covalent Attachment of Antibodies to PEGylated Nanoparticles for Targeted Drug Delivery

Polyethylene glycol (PEG)-modified nanoparticles (NPs) often struggle with reduced effectiveness against metastasis and liquid tumors due to limited tumor cell uptake and therapeutic efficacy. To address this, actively targeted liposomes with enhanced tumor selectivity and internalization are being developed to improve uptake and treatment outcomes. Using bi-functional proteins to functionalize PEGylated NPs and enhance targeted drug delivery through non-covalent attachment methods has emerged as a promising approach. Among these, the one-step and two-step targeting strategies stand out for their simplicity, efficiency, and versatility. The one-step strategy integrates streptavidin-tagged antibodies or bispecific antibodies (bsAbs: PEG/DIG × marker) directly into PEGylated NPs. This method uses the natural interactions between antibodies and PEG for stable, specific binding, allowing the modification of biotin/Fc-binding molecules like protein A, G, or anti-Fc peptide. Simply mixing bsAbs with PEGylated NPs improves tumor targeting and internalization. The two-step strategy involves first accumulating bsAbs (PEG/biotin × tumor marker) on the tumor cell surface, triggering an initial attack via antibody-dependent and complement-dependent cytotoxicity. These bsAbs then capture PEGylated NPs, initiating a second wave of internalization and cytotoxicity. Both strategies aim to enhance the targeting capabilities of PEGylated NPs by enabling specific recognition and binding to disease-specific markers or receptors. This review provides potential pathways for accelerating clinical translation in the development of targeted nanomedicine.

Fabrication of a Heptapeptide-Modified Poly(glycidyl Methac-Rylate) Nanosphere for Oriented Antibody Immobilization and Immunoassay

Oriented antibody immobilization has been widely employed in immunoassays and immunodiagnoses due to its efficacy in identifying target antigens. Herein, a heptapeptide ligand, HWRGWVC (HC7), was coupled to poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) nanospheres (PGMA-HC7). The antibody immobilization behavior and antigen recognition performance were investigated and compared with those on PGMA nanospheres by nonspecific adsorption and covalent coupling via carbodiimide chemistry. The antibodies tested included bovine, rabbit, and human immunoglobulin G (IgG), while the antigens included horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and β-2-Microglobulin (β2-MG). The nanospheres were characterized using zeta potential and particle size analyzers, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and reversed-phase chromatography, proving each synthesis step was succeeded. Isothermal titration calorimetry assay demonstrated the strong affinity interaction between IgG and PGMA-HC7. Notably, PGMA-HC7 achieved rapid and extremely high IgG adsorption capacity (~3 mg/mg) within 5 min via a specific recognition via HC7 without nonspecific interactions. Moreover, the activities of immobilized anti-HRP and anti-β2-MG antibodies obtained via affinity binding were 1.5-fold and 2-fold higher than those of their covalent coupling counterparts. Further, the oriented-immobilized anti-β2-MG antibody on PGMA-HC7 exhibited excellent performance in antigen recognition with a linear detection range of 0-5.3 μg/mL, proving its great potential in immunoassay applications.

Zn0-Induced Cytotoxicity and Mitochondrial Stress in Microglia: Implications of the Protective Role of Immunoglobulin G In Vitro

Background

Zinc (Zn), an essential micronutrient, regulates and maintains neurological functions. However, both Zn deficiency and excess can cause oxidative stress and neurodegenerative diseases. As previously reported, immunoglobulin G (IgG) can modulate oxidative stress in various disorders.

Aims

To investigate whether IgG treatment can alleviate oxidative stress caused by Zn0 on microglia in vitro.

Study Design

In vitro study.

Methods

The feasibility of Zn0 treatment was evaluated using the MTS assay. Oxidative stress following treatment with Zn0, either alone or with IgG supplementation, was determined with dihydrorhodamine 123 staining. Flow cytometry was employed to ascertain the intracellular protein levels of TRIM21, PINK, PARKIN, MFN2, Beclin-1, and active LC3B.

Methods

The feasibility of Zn0 treatment was evaluated using the MTS assay. Oxidative stress following treatment with Zn0, either alone or with IgG supplementation, was determined with dihydrorhodamine 123 staining. Flow cytometry was employed to ascertain the intracellular protein levels of TRIM21, PINK, PARKIN, MFN2, Beclin-1, and active LC3B. Results: In silico screening confirmed the association between Zn0 cytotoxicity and apoptosis. Furthermore, oxidative stress was identified as a critical mechanism that underlies Zn0 neurotoxicity. The in silico analysis revealed that Zn can interact with the constant region of the Ig heavy chain, suggesting a potential role for IgG in alleviating Zn0-induced cytotoxicity. Experimental findings supported this hypothesis, as IgG administration significantly reduced Zn0-induced mitochondrial stress in a dose-dependent manner. The upregulation of PINK1 levels by Zn0 exposure suggests that mitochondrial injury promotes mitophagy. Interestingly, Zn0 decreased TRIM21 levels, which is reversed by IgG administration.

Conclusion

These findings elucidate the cellular responses to Zn0 and highlight the potential use of intravenous immunoglobulin in mitigating the adverse effects of acute Zn0 exposure.

Mixed-Ligand-Regulated Self-Enhanced Luminous Eu-MOF as an ECL Signal Probe for an Oriented Antibody-Decorated Biosensing Platform

The self-luminescence behavior of lanthanide MOFs (Ln-MOFs) due to the unique antenna effect is considered to be a promising electrochemiluminescence (ECL) emission for biosensors. It is more challenging for Ln-MOFs on account of the difficulty to stimulate Ln ions with the desired energy-transfer efficiency to produce stronger ECL emissions at a low potential. Here, guided by a second ligand-assisted energy-transfer strategy, we present an efficient self-enhanced luminescence mixed-ligand Eu-MOF as an ECL signal probe for an oriented antibody-decorated biosensing platform with a low detection limit and a broad detection range. Diamino terephthalic acid (NH₂-H₂BDC) and 1,10-phenanthroline (Phen) were selected as the first and second ligands, respectively, to form highly conjugated structures, as well as suppress the nonradiative energy transfer. Impressively, Phen precisely adjusts the energy gap between the triplet ligand and the excited state of Eu³⁺, realizing the self-enhancement of ECL efficiency of the Eu-MOF. The mixed ligand adjusted the molar ratio to obtain the stable and strong ECL signal at a lowered triggering potential (0.83 V). In addition, FeCo@CNT features densely active FeCo sites along with a rich hierarchy conductive carbon nanotube (CNT) network, which is efficiently a co-reaction accelerator to produce more TPA^•+ radicals to accelerate the reduction process of the Eu-MOF for achieving the ECL emission amplification. FeCo@CNT with heptapeptide HWRGWVC (HWR) constructed a matrix biosensing interface that allowed the fragment antigen-binding (Fab) regions to target specific antigens and enhance the incubation efficiency. The present study has gone some way toward designing a self-enhanced luminous Eu-MOF, thus giving new fresh impetus to develop high-performance ECL emitters for biological analysis.

Hollow Double-Shell CuCo2O4@Cu2O Heterostructures as a Highly Efficient Coreaction Accelerator for Amplifying NIR Electrochemiluminescence of Gold Nanoclusters in Immunoassay

The evolution of electrochemiluminescence (ECL) emission amplified by coreaction accelerator in near-infrared (NIR) area has been overwhelmingly anticipated for ultrasensitive detection of disease biomarkers. Herein, the hollow double-shell CuCo₂O₄@Cu₂O (HDS-CuCo₂O₄@Cu₂O) heterostructures were conveniently prepared and utilized as an attractive coreaction accelerator to improve the NIR ECL performance of gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) for the first time. Benefiting from perfect-matched lattice spacing, unique Cu₂O nanoparticles (NPs) were formed in situ on the layered-hollow CuCo₂O₄ nanospheres (NSs) to obtain HDS-CuCo₂O₄@Cu₂O heterostructures. The formed heterojunctions supplied shorter charge transfer distance and better interfacial charge transfer efficiency as well as more effective separation performance. Consequently, HDS-CuCo₂O₄@Cu₂O heterostructures as an admirable electroactive substrate could significantly promote the formation of sufficient coreactant intermediate radicals to react with AuNCs cationic radicals, realizing about 3-folds stronger NIR ECL response than that of individual AuNCs. In addition, the AuNCs templated by l-methionine (l-Met) exhibited NIR ECL emission around 830 nm, which could decrease the photochemical damage to even realize a nondestructive detection with improved susceptibility and circumambient adaptability. Subsequently, a well site-oriented fixation strategy utilizing HWRGWVC heptapeptide as the specific antibody immobilizer was introduced to further preserve the bioactivity of antibody on the HDS-CuCo₂O₄@Cu₂O and AuNCs surface along with enhancing the incubation performance markedly. In view of the progressive sensing mechanism, a NIR immunosensor was obtained for the ultrasensitive analysis of CYFRA21-1, which achieved a broad linear ranging from 2 fg/mL to 50 ng/mL and a low limit of detection (LOD) of 0.67 fg/mL (S/N = 3).

Characterization of a heptapeptide-modified microsphere for oriented antibody immobilization

Oriented immobilization of antibodies is important for the effective recognition of target antigens. In this paper, a heptapeptide ligand, HWRGWVC (HC7), was modified onto non-porous mono-sized poly (glyceryl methacrylate) (pGMA) microspheres (named pGMA-HC7) to explore the antibody immobilization behaviors. Characterization of the microspheres by particle size analyzer, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and reversed-phase chromatography proved the success of each fabrication step. The capacity and activity of antibody immobilization through HC7 were studied using immunoglobulin G (IgG) as a model antibody and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) as a model antigen. Additionally, IgG immobilizations on pGMA microspheres by nonspecific adsorption and covalent coupling through carbodiimide chemistry were conducted for comparison. pGMA-HC7 exhibited an IgG adsorption capacity of 3-4 mg/g in 10 min by the specific binding of HC7 without nonspecific interactions. Notably, the ligand HC7 showed a by two orders of magnitude stronger affinity for IgG than its original hexapeptide ligand HWRGWV. Moreover, the capacity and activity of the immobilized anti-HRP antibody on pGMA-HC7 were 1.6-fold and 3-fold higher than those of the covalent coupling, respectively. The results proved the superior role of HWRGWVC in the affinity binding of antibody and the potential of pGMA-HC7-25 in immunoassay and immunodiagnostic applications.

Facile Encapsulation of Iridium(III) Complexes in Apoferritin Nanocages as Promising Electrochemiluminescence Nanodots for Immunoassays

A class of water-soluble electrochemiluminescence (ECL) nanodots were prepared by encapsulating ECL-active iridium complexes into biocompatible horse spleen apoferritin (apoHSF) nanocages for immunoassays. The preparation feasibility was achieved based on the pH-induced disassembly/reassembly nature originated from apoHSF. Two iridium nanodots (1 and 2) with high ECL efficiency were separately prepared by directing the self-assembly of two water-insoluble luminescent complexes, Ir(ppy)₃ (ppy = 2-phenylpyridine) and Ir(ppy)₂(acac) (ppy = 2-phenylpyridine and acac = acetylacetonate), in the apoHSF cavity. Using tri-n-propylamine (TPrA) as a coreactant, the electrochemistry and "oxidative-reductive" ECL mechanisms for nanodots 1 and 2 were investigated, respectively. After demonstrating the spectroscopic property and relative ECL efficiency, the ECL emission of nanodots 1 and 2 quenched by TPrA^• radicals at high potential was further studied and circumvented by optimizing the potential range and TPrA concentration for generating strong and stable ECL emission in aqueous media. The well-inherited biological functions of apoHSF in nanodots allow the convenient external modification of an antibody to act as a signal probe, thus a versatile ECL immunoassay paradigm was established. Acceptable results from this assay enabled the rapid and accurate detection of biomarkers in real samples. The unprecedented use of apoHSF is feasible and applicable for water-insoluble iridium complexes to fabricate a wide variety of biocompatible ECL nanodots for potential bioanalysis.

Intramolecular Photoelectrochemical System Using Tyrosine-Modified Antibody-Targeted Peptide as Electron Donor for Detection of Biomarkers

An intramolecular photoelectrochemical (PEC) system is designed from the novel electron donor YYYHWRGWV (Y3-H) peptide ligand for the first time. The bifunctional nonapeptide cannot only rely on the HWRGWV sequence as a site-oriented immobilizer to recognize the crystallizable fragment (Fc) domains of the antibody but also acts as electron donors for PEC generation via three tyrosine (Y) of the N-terminal. The Bi₂WO₆/AgInS₂ heterojunction with a significant visible-light absorption is utilized as a photoelectric generator, and the motivation is ascribed to a proven proposition, namely, that short-wavelength illuminant radiates proteins, causing a decline in bioactivity of immune protein. An innovative biosensor is fabricated using the above strategies for the detection of CYFRA21-1, a biomarker of squamous cell lung carcinoma. This sort of PEC-based sensing platform shows convincing experimental data and could be an effective candidate for clinical application in the future due to their extremely skillful conception.

Oxygen Vacancy-Enhanced Electrochemiluminescence Sensing Strategy Using Luminol Thermally Encapsulated in Apoferritin as a Transducer for Biomarker Immunoassay

Oxygen vacancies (OVs) enhanced electrochemiluminescence (ECL) biosensing strategy using luminol thermally encapsulated in apoferritin (Lum@apoFt) as an efficient transducer was investigated for ultrasensitive biomarker detection. By applying the oxygen-defect engineering (ODE) strategy, the OVs enriched cobalt-iron oxide (r-CoFe₂O₄) was fabricated as the sensing substrate to boost the electron mobility and catalyze the generation of superoxide anion radical (O₂^•-) for signal amplification. It should be noted that r-CoFe₂O₄ with higher OVs density dramatically accelerated the ECL reaction between O₂^•- and luminol anionic radicals, achieving 6.5-fold stronger ECL output than CoFe₂O₄ with no or low OVs density. Moreover, facile encapsulation of approximate 412 luminol molecules in a single apoFt cavity was first realized by an efficient thermal-induction method. The obtained Lum@apoFt complexes exhibited well-maintained ECL efficiency and excellent biocompatibility for biological modifications. On this basis, a biosensor was developed for early diagnostics of squamous cell carcinomas by detecting its representative biomarker named cytokeratin 19 fragment 21-1 (CYFRA 21-1), from which excellent linearity was achieved in 0.5 pg/mL to 50 ng/mL with a detection limit of 0.14 pg/mL. This work not only put forward a novel idea of creating OVs enriched sensing interface with excellent signal-amplification function but also proposes a facile and robust methodology to design apoFt-based transducers for developing more practical nanoscale biosensors in early diagnostics of diseases.

Synthesis and Application of CeO2/SnS2 Heterostructures as a Highly Efficient Coreaction Accelerator in the Luminol-Dissolved O2 System for Ultrasensitive Biomarkers Immunoassay

Electrocheluminescence (ECL) immunoassay amplified by coreaction accelerators has experienced major breakthroughs in ultrasensitive detection of biomarkers. Herein, CeO₂/SnS₂ heterostructures were synthesized and applied as a novel coreaction accelerator to enhance the ECL efficiency of the luminol-dissolved O₂ system for the first time. Benefiting from the well-matched lattice spacing, ultrafine CeO₂ nanoparticles (NPs) were grown in situ on layered SnS₂ nanosheets (NSs) with improved dispersion. CeO₂/SnS₂ as an electroactive substrate can remarkably accelerate the generation of abundant superoxide anion radicals (O₂^•-) to react with luminol anion radical (L^•-), achieving about 2-fold stronger ECL intensity than that of pure CeO₂ NPs. To avoid harsh chemical synthesis of conventional ECL labels and simplify the antibody conjugation process, ferritin (Ft) was served as a natural nanocarrier to immobilize luminol molecules (Lum@Ft) via a one-step linkage, whose protein nanocage can easily connect with the detection antibody. Moreover, a robust site-oriented immobilization strategy using HWRGWVC heptapeptide as specific capturer was further adopted to maintain the bioactivity of the capture antibody on the amine-functionalized CeO₂/SnS₂ surface, which promoted the incubation efficiency markedly. On account of this advanced sensing strategy, a brand new biosensor was constructed for the accurate detection of heart failure biomarkers, which performed with favorable linearity in the range of 0.0001-50 ng/mL and achieved the detection limit of 36 fg/mL.

Targeted Capture of Chinese Hamster Ovary Host Cell Proteins: Peptide Ligand Discovery

The growing integration of quality-by-design (QbD) concepts in biomanufacturing calls for a detailed and quantitative knowledge of the profile of impurities and their impact on the product safety and efficacy. Particularly valuable is the determination of the residual level of host cell proteins (HCPs) secreted, together with the product of interest, by the recombinant cells utilized for production. Though often referred to as a single impurity, HCPs comprise a variety of species with diverse abundance, size, function, and composition. The clearance of these impurities is a complex issue due to their cell line to cell line, product-to-product, and batch-to-batch variations. Improvements in HCP monitoring through proteomic-based methods have led to identification of a subset of “problematic” HCPs that are particularly challenging to remove, both at the product capture and product polishing steps, and compromise product stability and safety even at trace concentrations. This paper describes the development of synthetic peptide ligands capable of capturing a broad spectrum of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) HCPs with a combination of peptide species that allow for advanced mixed-mode binding. Solid phase peptide libraries were screened for identification and characterization of peptides that capture CHO HCPs while showing minimal binding of human IgG, utilized here as a model product. Tetrameric and hexameric ligands featuring either multipolar or hydrophobic/positive amino acid compositions were found to be the most effective. Tetrameric multipolar ligands exhibited the highest targeted binding ratio (ratio of HCP clearance over IgG loss), more than double that of commercial mixed-mode and anion exchange resins utilized by industry for IgG polishing. All peptide resins tested showed preferential binding to HCPs compared to IgG, indicating potential uses in flow-through mode or weak-partitioning-mode chromatography.

Optimization of Sequence, Display, and Mode of Operation of IgG-Binding Peptide Ligands to Develop Robust, High-Capacity Affinity Adsorbents That Afford High IgG Product Quality

This work presents the use of peptide ligand HWRGWV and its cognate sequences to develop affinity adsorbents that compete with Protein A in terms of binding capacity and quality of the eluted product. First, the peptide ligand was conjugated to crosslinked agarose resins (WorkBeads) at different densities and using different spacer arms. The optimization of ligand density and display resulted in values of static and dynamic binding capacity of 85 mg/mL and 65 mg/mL, respectively. A selected peptide-WorkBeads adsorbent was utilized for purifying Mabs from Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell culture supernatants. The peptide-WorkBeads adsorbent was found able to withstand sanitization with strong alkaline solutions (0.5 M NaOH). The purity of the eluted product was consistently higher than 95%, with logarithmic removal value (LRV) of 1.5 for host cell proteins (HCPs) and 4.0 for DNA. HCP clearance was significantly improved by adding a post-load washing step with either 0.1 M Tris HCl pH 9 or 1 M NaCl. The cognate peptide of HWRGWV, constructed by replacing arginine (R) with citrulline, further increased the HCP LRV to 2.15. The peptide-based adsorbent also showed a remarkable performance in terms of removal of Mab aggregates; unlike Protein A, in fact, HWRGWV was found to bind only monomeric IgG. Collectively, these results demonstrate the potential of peptide-based adsorbents as alternative to Protein A for the purification of therapeutic antibodies.

Identification and Characterization of Novel Fc-Binding Heptapeptides from Experiments and Simulations

Purification of biologically-derived therapeutics is a major cost contributor to the production of this rapidly growing class of pharmaceuticals. Monoclonal antibodies comprise a large percentage of these products, therefore new antibody purification tools are needed. Small peptides, as opposed to traditional antibody affinity ligands such as Protein A, may have advantages in stability and production costs. Multiple heptapeptides that demonstrate Fc binding behavior that have been identified from a combinatorial peptide library using M13 phage display are presented herein. Seven unique peptide sequences of diverse hydrophobicity and charge were identified. All seven peptides showed strong binding to the four major human IgG isotypes, human IgM, as well as binding to canine, rat, and mouse IgG. These seven peptides were also shown to bind human IgG4 from DMEM cell culture media with 5% FCS and 5 g/L ovalbumin present. These peptides may be useful as surface ligands for antibody detection and purification purposes. Molecular docking and classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were conducted to elucidate the mechanisms and energetics for the binding of these peptides to the Fc region. The binding site was found to be located between the two glycan chains inside the Fc fragment. Both hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions were found to be crucial for the binding interactions. Excellent agreement for the binding strength was obtained between experimental results and simulations.

Fc-Binding Ligands of Immunoglobulin G: An Overview of High Affinity Proteins and Peptides

The rapidly increasing application of antibodies has inspired the development of several novel methods to isolate and target antibodies using smart biomaterials that mimic the binding of Fc-receptors to antibodies. The Fc-binding domain of antibodies is the primary binding site for e.g., effector proteins and secondary antibodies, whereas antigens bind to the Fab region. Protein A, G, and L, surface proteins expressed by pathogenic bacteria, are well known to bind immunoglobulin and have been widely exploited in antibody purification strategies. Several difficulties are encountered when bacterial proteins are used in antibody research and application. One of the major obstacles hampering the use of bacterial proteins is sample contamination with trace amounts of these proteins, which can invoke an immune response in the host. Many research groups actively develop synthetic ligands that are able to selectively and strongly bind to antibodies. Among the reported ligands, peptides that bind to the Fc-domain of antibodies are attractive tools in antibody research. Besides their use as high affinity ligands in antibody purification chromatography, Fc-binding peptides are applied e.g., to localize antibodies on nanomaterials and to increase the half-life of proteins in serum. In this review, recent developments of Fc-binding peptides are presented and their binding characteristics and diverse applications are discussed.

2-(2-Hydroxy-5-nitrobenzylidene)-1,3-indanedione versus Fluorescein Isothiocyanate in Interaction with Anti-hFABP Immunoglobulin G1: Fluorescence Quenching, Secondary Structure Alteration and Binding Sites Localization

The first step in determining whether a fluorescent dye can be used for antibody labeling consists in collecting data on its physical interaction with the latter. In the present study, the interaction between the 2-(2-hydroxy-5-nitrobenzylidene)-1,3-indanedione (HNBID) dye and the IgG1 monoclonal mouse antibody anti-human heart fatty acid binding protein (anti-hFABP) has been investigated by fluorescence and circular dichroism spectroscopies and complementary structural results were obtained by molecular modeling. We have determined the parameters characterizing this interaction, namely the quenching and binding constants, classes of binding sites, and excited state lifetimes, and we have predicted the localization of HNBID within the Fc region of anti-hFABP. The key glycosidic and amino acid residues in anti-hFABP interacting with HNBID have also been identified. A similar systematic study was undertaken for the well-known fluorescein isothiocyanate fluorophore, for comparison purposes. Our results recommend HNBID as a valuable alternative to fluorescein isothiocyanate for use as a fluorescent probe for IgG1 antibodies.