Eichinger A, Neumaier I, Pschenitza M, Niessner R, Knopp D, Skerra A. Tight Molecular Recognition of Benzo[a]pyrene by a High-Affinity Antibody.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2017;
56:10592-10597. [PMID:
28603847 DOI:
10.1002/anie.201703893]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2017] [Revised: 05/26/2017] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
Benzo[a]pyrene, which is produced during the incomplete combustion of organic material, is an abundant noxious pollutant because of its carcinogenic metabolic degradation products. The high-affinity (KD ≈3 nm) monoclonal antibody 22F12 allows facile bioanalytical quantification of benzo[a]pyrene even in complex matrices. We report the functional and X-ray crystallographic analysis of 22F12 in complex with 3-hydroxybenzo[a]pyrene after cloning of the V-genes and production as a recombinant Fab fragment. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon is bound in a deep pocket between the light and heavy chains, surrounded mainly by aromatic and aliphatic amino acid side chains. Interestingly, the hapten-antibody interface is less densely packed than expected and reveals polar, H-bond-like interactions with the polycyclic aromatic π-electron system, which may allow the antibody to maintain a large, predominantly hydrophobic binding site in an aqueous environment while providing sufficient complementarity to its ligand.
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