Development of humanized rabbit monoclonal antibodies against vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 with potential antitumor effects

Integrating high-throughput screening and sequencing for monoclonal antibody discovery and engineering

Monoclonal antibody discovery and engineering is a field that has traditionally been dominated by high-throughput screening platforms (e.g. hybridomas and surface display). In recent years the emergence of high-throughput sequencing has made it possible to obtain large-scale information on antibody repertoire diversity. Additionally, it has now become more routine to perform high-throughput sequencing on antibody repertoires to also directly discover antibodies. In this review, we provide an overview of the progress in this field to date and show how high-throughput screening and sequencing are converging to deliver powerful new workflows for monoclonal antibody discovery and engineering.

From rabbit antibody repertoires to rabbit monoclonal antibodies

In this review, we explain why and how rabbit monoclonal antibodies have become outstanding reagents for laboratory research and increasingly for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Starting with the unique ontogeny of rabbit B cells that affords highly distinctive antibody repertoires rich in in vivo pruned binders of high diversity, affinity and specificity, we describe the generation of rabbit monoclonal antibodies by hybridoma technology, phage display and alternative methods, along with an account of successful humanization strategies.

In Vitro Assays for Endothelial Cell Functions Required for Angiogenesis: Proliferation, Motility, Tubular Differentiation, and Matrix Proteolysis

This chapter deconstructs the process of angiogenesis into its component parts in order to provide simple assays to measure discrete endothelial cell functions. The techniques described will be suitable for studying stimulators and/or inhibitors of angiogenesis and determining which aspect of the process is modulated. The assays are designed to be robust and straightforward, using human umbilical vein endothelial cells, but with an option to use other sources such as microvascular endothelial cells from various tissues or lymphatic endothelial cells. It must be appreciated that such reductionist approaches cannot cover the complexity of the angiogenic process as a whole, incorporating as it does a myriad of positive and negative signals, three-dimensional interactions with host tissues and many accessory cells including fibroblasts, macrophages, pericytes and platelets. The extent to which in vitro assays predict physiological or pathological processes in vivo (e.g., wound healing, tumor angiogenesis) or surrogate techniques such as the use of Matrigel™ plugs, sponge implants, corneal assays etc remains to be determined.

Synergistic antitumor efficacy of combined DNA vaccines targeting tumor cells and angiogenesis

To further enhance the antitumor efficacy of DNA vaccine, we proposed a synergistic strategy that targeted tumor cells and angiogenesis simultaneously. In this study, a Semliki Forest Virus (SFV) replicon DNA vaccine expressing 1-4 domains of murine VEGFR2 and IL12 was constructed, and was named pSVK-VEGFR2-GFc-IL12 (CAVE). The expression of VEGFR2 antigen and IL12 adjuvant molecule in 293T cells in vitro were verified by western blot and enzyme-linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA). Then CAVE was co-immunized with CAVA, a SFV replicon DNA vaccine targeting survivin and β-hCG antigens constructed previously. The antitumor efficacy of our combined replicon vaccines was evaluated in mice model and the possible mechanism was further investigated. The combined vaccines could elicit efficient humoral and cellular immune responses against survivin, β-hCG and VEGFR2 simultaneously. Compared with CAVE or CAVA vaccine alone, the combined vaccines inhibited the tumor growth and improved the survival rate in B16 melanoma mice model more effectively. Furthermore, the intratumoral microvessel density was lowest in combined vaccines group than CAVE or CAVA alone group. Therefore, this synergistic strategy of DNA vaccines for tumor treatment results in an increased antitumor efficacy, and may be more suitable for translation to future research and clinic.

A novel rabbit anti-hepatocyte growth factor monoclonal neutralizing antibody inhibits tumor growth in prostate cancer cells and mouse xenografts

The hepatocyte growth factor and its receptor c-Met are correlated with castration-resistance in prostate cancer. Although HGF has been considered as an attractive target for therapeutic antibodies, the lack of cross-reactivity of monoclonal antibodies with human/mouse HGFs is a major obstacle in preclinical developments. We generated a panel of anti-HGF RabMAbs either blocking HGF/c-Met interaction or inhibiting c-Met phosphorylation. We selected one RabMAb with mouse cross-reactivity and demonstrated that it blocked HGF-stimulated downstream activation in PC-3 and DU145 cells. Anti-HGF RabMAb inhibited not only the growth of PC-3 cells but also HGF-dependent proliferation in HUVECs. We further demonstrated the efficacy and potency of the anti-HGF RabMAb in tumor xenograft mice models. Through these in vitro and in vivo experiments, we explored a novel therapeutic antibody for advanced prostate cancer.

Preferential recognition of isocitrate dehydrogenase by a rabbit monoclonal antibody (ab124797) against the C-terminal peptide of RANKL

A rabbit monoclonal antibody (Abcam ab124797), with high affinity for a synthetic peptide corresponding to the C-terminal region of the receptor activator of nuclear factor (NF)-κB ligand (RANKL), specifically recognizes a 37 kDa protein by immunoblotting, in good agreement with the molecular mass of RANKL. However, our mass spectroscopy analysis revealed that the protein recognized by the antibody is the α-subunit of NAD(+)-dependent isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICDH), a key Krebs cycle enzyme in mitochondria. Consistently, immunocytochemical staining with the antibody revealed a network organization characteristic of mitochondria, which overlapped with staining by MitoTracker and was lost after the siRNA-mediated downregulation of ICDH. The C-terminal peptide of ICDH contains similar chemical characteristics to that of the RANKL peptide and interacts with the antibody, although the affinity is a hundred times weaker. The present study provides an example of the preferential recognition of a surrogate protein by a rabbit monoclonal antibody.

The functional repertoire of rabbit antibodies and antibody discovery via next-generation sequencing

To gain insight into the functional antibody repertoire of rabbits, the VH and VL repertoires of bone marrow (BM) and spleen (SP) of a naïve New Zealand White rabbit (NZW; Oryctolagus cuniculus) and that of lymphocytes collected from a NZW rabbit immunized (IM) with a 16-mer peptide were deep-sequenced. Two closely related genes, IGHV1S40 (VH1a3) and IGHV1S45 (VH4), were found to dominate (~90%) the VH repertoire of BM and SP, whereas, IGHV1S69 (VH1a1) contributed significantly (~40%) to IM. BM and SP antibodies recombined predominantly with IGHJ4. A significant proportion (~30%) of IM sequences recombined with IGHJ2. The VK repertoire was encoded by nine IGKV genes recombined with one IGKJ gene, IGKJ1. No significant bias in the VK repertoire of the BM, SP and IM samples was observed. The complementarity-determining region (CDR)-H3 and -L3 length distributions were similar in the three samples following a Gaussian curve with average length of 12.2 ± 2.4 and 11.1 ± 1.1 amino acids, respectively. The amino acid composition of the predominant CDR-H3 and -L3 loop lengths was similar to that of humans and mice, rich in Tyr, Gly, Ser and, in some specific positions, Asp. The average number of mutations along the IGHV/KV genes was similar in BM, SP and IM; close to 12 and 15 mutations for VH and VL, respectively. A monoclonal antibody specific for the peptide used as immunogen was obtained from the IM rabbit. The CDR-H3 sequence was found in 1,559 of 61,728 (2.5%) sequences, at position 10, in the rank order of the CDR-H3 frequencies. The CDR-L3 was found in 24 of 11,215 (0.2%) sequences, ranking 102. No match was found in the BM and SP samples, indicating positive selection for the hybridoma sequence. Altogether, these findings lay foundations for engineering of rabbit V regions to enhance their potential as therapeutics, i.e., design of strategies for selection of specific rabbit V regions from NGS data mining, humanization and design of libraries for affinity maturation campaigns.