Immunoglobulin V regions and epitope mapping of a murine monoclonal antibody against p24 core protein of HIV-1

Changing the antigen binding specificity by single point mutations of an anti-p24 (HIV-1) antibody

The murine mAb CB4-1 raised against p24 (HIV-1) recognizes a linear epitope of the HIV-1 capsid protein. Additionally, CB4-1 exhibits cross-reactive binding to epitope-homologous peptides and polyspecific reactions to epitope nonhomologous peptides. Crystal structures demonstrate that the epitope peptide (e-pep) and the nonhomologous peptides adopt different conformations within the binding region of CB4-1. Site-directed mutagenesis of the fragment variable (Fv) region was performed using a single-chain (sc)Fv construct of CB4-1 to analyze binding contributions of single amino acid side chains toward the e-pep and toward one epitope nonhomologous peptide. The mutations of Ab amino acid side chains, which are in direct contact with the Ag, show opposite influences on the binding of the two peptides. Whereas the affinity of the e-pep to the CB4-1 scFv mutant heavy chain variable region Tyr(32)Ala is decreased 250-fold, the binding of the nonhomologous peptide remains unchanged. In contrast, the mutation light chain variable region Phe(94)Ala reduces the affinity of the nonhomologous peptide 10-fold more than it does for the e-pep. Thus, substantial changes in the specificity can be observed by single amino acid exchanges. Further characterization of the scFv mutants by substitutional analysis of the peptides demonstrates that the effect of a mutation is not restricted to contact residues. This method also reveals an inverse compensatory amino acid exchange for the nonhomologous peptide which increases the affinity to the scFv mutant light chain variable region Phe(94)Ala up to the level of the e-pep affinity to the wild-type scFv.

Binding kinetics of an antibody against HIV p24 core protein measured with real-time biomolecular interaction analysis suggest a slow conformational change in antigen p24

The interaction between HIV core protein p24 and the murine monoclonal antibody CB-4/1 or its Fab fragment showed unusual kinetics. Recombinant p24 was immobilised in a hydrophilic carboxymethyldextran matrix. At high concentration of CB-4/1 Fab the association of the antigen-antibody complex proceeds in two phases, while dissociation is mono-exponential. The antigen has a 'memory', i.e. shortly after dissociation of Fab-antigen complex the fast association phase is enhanced. Biphasic association was also found in solution. Experiments suggest a reversible change of binding properties in the epitope region with an overall time constant of about 100 s at room temperature. Intermediate steps with faster time constants must be involved. Slow conformational changes of p24 seem to be the most probable explanation. A simple model that provides a quantitative description of this process could not be found. Real-time analysis of antibody binding by surface plasmon resonance is a powerful method for studying such changes in the time domain of a few seconds to a few minutes.

Detection of inhibition of HIV-1 protease activity by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)

An ELISA is described for the detection of HIV-1 protease activity using an immobilized gag-related polyprotein as substrate. Proteolytic activity was demonstrated with either bacterial lysates expressing HIV-1 protease or purified protease. No cleavage was observed with a protein preparation from control bacteria not expressing HIV-1 protease. Under these conditions the aspartyl-type protease inhibitor, pepstatin A, was found to inhibit HIV-1 protease cleavage by > 90% at a concentration of 0.1 mM. This assay may be a useful tool for the study of both synthetic and natural inhibitors of HIV-1 protease.