Generation of a Novel High-Affinity Antibody Binding to PCSK9 Catalytic Domain with Slow Dissociation Rate by CDR-Grafting, Alanine Scanning and Saturated Site-Directed Mutagenesis for Favorably Treating Hypercholesterolemia.
Biomedicines 2021;
9:biomedicines9121783. [PMID:
34944600 PMCID:
PMC8698692 DOI:
10.3390/biomedicines9121783]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2021] [Revised: 11/22/2021] [Accepted: 11/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Inhibition of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) has become an attractive therapeutic strategy for lowering low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). In this study, a novel high affinity humanized IgG1 mAb (named h5E12-L230G) targeting the catalytic domain of human PCSK9 (hPCSK9) was generated by using CDR-grafting, alanine-scanning mutagenesis, and saturated site-directed mutagenesis. The heavy-chain constant region of h5E12-L230G was modified to eliminate the cytotoxic effector functions and mitigate the heterogeneity. The biolayer interferometry (BLI) binding assay and molecular docking study revealed that h5E12-L230G binds to the catalytic domain of hPCSK9 with nanomolar affinity (KD = 1.72 nM) and an extremely slow dissociation rate (koff, 4.84 × 10−5 s−1), which interprets its quite low binding energy (−54.97 kcal/mol) with hPCSK9. Additionally, h5E12-L230G elevated the levels of LDLR and enhanced the LDL-C uptake in HepG2 cells, as well as reducing the serum LDL-C and total cholesterol (TC) levels in hyperlipidemic mouse model with high potency comparable to the positive control alirocumab. Our data indicate that h5E12-L230G is a high-affinity anti-PCSK9 antibody candidate with an extremely slow dissociation rate for favorably treating hypercholesterolemia and relevant cardiovascular diseases.
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