Enzymic oxidation of monoclonal antibodies by soluble and immobilized bifunctional enzyme complexes

Modulating antibody effector functions by Fc glycoengineering

Antibody based drugs, including IgG monoclonal antibodies, are an expanding class of therapeutics widely employed to treat cancer, autoimmune and infectious diseases. IgG antibodies have a conserved N-glycosylation site at Asn297 that bears complex type N-glycans which, along with other less conserved N- and O-glycosylation sites, fine-tune effector functions, complement activation, and half-life of antibodies. Fucosylation, galactosylation, sialylation, bisection and mannosylation all generate glycoforms that interact in a specific manner with different cellular antibody receptors and are linked to a distinct functional profile. Antibodies, including those employed in clinical settings, are generated with a mixture of glycoforms attached to them, which has an impact on their efficacy, stability and effector functions. It is therefore of great interest to produce antibodies containing only tailored glycoforms with specific effects associated with them. To this end, several antibody engineering strategies have been developed, including the usage of engineered mammalian cell lines, in vitro and in vivo glycoengineering.

Site-selective orientated immobilization of antibodies and conjugates for immunodiagnostics development

Immobilized antibody systems are the key to develop efficient diagnostics and separations tools. In the last decade, developments in the field of biomolecular engineering and crosslinker chemistry have greatly influenced the development of this field. With all these new approaches at our disposal, several new immobilization methods have been created to address the main challenges associated with immobilized antibodies. Few of these challenges that we have discussed in this review are mainly associated to the site-specific immobilization, appropriate orientation, and activity retention. We have discussed the effect of antibody immobilization approaches on the parameters on the performance of an immunoassay.

Site-directed antibody immobilization techniques for immunosensors

Immunosensor sensitivity, regenerability, and stability directly depend on the type of antibodies used for the immunosensor design, quantity of immobilized molecules, remaining activity upon immobilization, and proper orientation on the sensing interface. Although sensor surfaces prepared with antibodies immobilized in a random manner yield satisfactory results, site-directed immobilization of the sensing molecules significantly improves the immunosensor sensitivity, especially when planar supports are employed. This review focuses on the three most conventional site-directed antibody immobilization techniques used in immunosensor design. One strategy of immobilizing antibodies on the sensor surface is via affinity interactions with a pre-formed layer of the Fc binding proteins, e.g., protein A, protein G, Fc region specific antibodies or various recombinant proteins. Another immobilization strategy is based on the use of chemically or genetically engineered antibody fragments that can be attached to the sensor surface covered in gold or self-assembled monolayer via the sulfhydryl groups present in the hinge region. The third most common strategy is antibody immobilization via an oxidized oligosaccharide moiety present in the Fc region of the antibody. The principles, advantages, applications, and arising problems of these most often applied immobilization techniques are reviewed.

Enzymatic antibody modification by bacterial transglutaminase

Enzymatic posttranslational modification of proteins permits more precise control over conjugation site than chemical modification of reactive amino acid side chains. Ideally, protein modification by an enzyme yields completely homogeneous conjugates with improved properties for research or therapeutic use. As an example, we here provide a protocol for bacterial transglutaminase (BTGase)-mediated conjugation of cadaverine-derivatized substrates to an IgG1, resulting in stable bond formation between glutamine 295 of the antibody heavy chain and the substrate. This procedure requires enzymatic removal of N-linked glycans from the antibody and yields a defined substrate/antibody ratio of 2:1. Alternatively, a mutant aglycosylated IgG1 variant may be generated by site-directed mutagenesis. The mutation introduces an additional glutamine and yields a substrate/antibody ratio of 4:1 after coupling. Finally, we describe an ESI-TOF mass spectrometry-based method to analyze the uniformity of the resulting conjugates. The presented approach allows the facile generation of homogeneous antibody conjugates and can be applied to any IgG1 and a wide range of cadaverine-derivatized substrates.

Comparative study of the three different fluorophore antibody conjugation strategies

The progression in bioconjugational chemistry has significantly contributed to the evolution and success of protein biology. Mainly, antibody chemistry has been a subject of intensive study owing to the expansion of research areas warranted by using various derivatives of conjugated antibodies. Three reactive moieties (amine, sulfhydryl and carbohydrate) in the antibodies are chiefly favored for the conjugational purpose. This feature is known for decades, nevertheless, amine based conjugation is still the most preferred strategy despite the appreciation the other two methods receive in conserving the antigen binding affinity (ABA). No single report has been published, according to our knowledge, where these three conjugation strategies were applied to the same fluorophore antibody systems. In this study, we evaluated conjugation yield, time demand and cost efficiency of these conjugation procedures. Our results showed that amine based conjugations was by far the best technique due to its simplicity, rapidity, ease of operation, higher conjugate yield, cheaper cost and potential for larger fluorophore/protein labeling ratio without having much effect in ABA. Furthermore, sulfhydryl labeling clearly excelled in terms of reduced non-specific binding and mild effect in ABA but was usually complicated by an asymmetric antibody reduction due to mercaptoethylamine while carbohydrate oxidation based strategy performed the worst during our experiment.

Site-specific modification of recombinant proteins: a novel platform for modifying glycoproteins expressed in E. coli

The site-specific modification of proteins is expected to be an important capability for the synthesis of bioconjugates in the future. However, the traditional repertoire of reactions available for the direct modification of proteins suffers from lack of specificity, necessitating costly downstream processing to isolate the specific species of interest. (1) Here, we use a well-established, glycan-specific chemistry to PEGylate model glycoproteins, each containing a unique reactive GalNAc attached to a specifically engineered threonine residue. By engineering E. coli to execute the initial steps of human, mucin-type O-glycosylation, we were able to obtain homogeneous site-specifically modified glycoproteins with fully human glycan linkages. Two mucin-based reporters as well as several fusion proteins containing eight-amino-acid GalNAc-T recognition sequences were glycosylated in this engineered glycocompetent strain of E. coli. The use of one sequence in particular, PPPTSGPT, resulted in site-specific glycan occupancy of approximately 69% at the engineered threonine. The GalNAc present on the purified glycoprotein was oxidized by galactose oxidase and then coupled to hydroxylamine functionalized 20 kDa PEG in the presence of aniline. The glycoprotein could be converted to the PEGylated product at approximately 85% yield and >98% purity as determined by comparison to the products of control reactions.

Isolation of antigens and antibodies by affinity chromatography

Antibody-antigen binding constants are commonly strong enough for an effective affinity purification of antibodies (by immobilized antigens) or antigens (by immobilized antibodies) to work out a straightforward purification method. A drawback is that antibodies are large protein molecules and subject to denaturation under conditions required for the elution from the complex. Structures of antigens can vary but usually antigens are also equally subject to similar problems. The lability of the components can sometimes make the procedure sophisticated, but usually in all cases it is possible to find a satisfactory approach. In certain cases, specific interactions of the Fc part of antibodies are more facile to exploit for their purification.

Oriented immobilization of galactose oxidase to bead and magnetic bead cellulose and poly(HEMA-co-EDMA) and magnetic poly(HEMA-co-EDMA) microspheres

In order to obtain an active and stable oxidation reactor for daily use in biochemical laboratory we decided to immobilize galactose oxidase orientedly through a carbohydrate chain to the magnetic carriers. We used hydrazide derivatives of non-magnetic and magnetic bead cellulose and of magnetic and non-magnetic poly(HEMA-co-EDMA) microspheres. Activation of the enzyme molecules was done by sodium periodate in the presence of supplements (fucose, CuSO4, catalase). Orientedly immobilized galactose oxidase presents high storage stability and lower susceptibility to inappropriate microenvironmental conditions. Reactor reactivated by three pulses of D-galactose retained practically 100% of its native activity after 6 months. The positive properties of both magnetic carriers were entirely confirmed.

Single molecule research on surfaces: from analytics to construction and back

The study of single molecules opens a new dimension in understanding nature down to its finest ramifications. While much progress was achieved in the last decade concerning the detection techniques, suitable techniques for manipulating and handling the biomolecules still bear a challenge. Primarily, the task is keeping an individual, active molecule of a certain lifespan in the spot. Here, we will focus on techniques for the functional immobilization of (single) molecules on surfaces to enable their observation at one position over a time period. Presenting the main methods of reversible immobilization we will accentuate the chelator lipid concept as combining all features prerequisite for functional, reversible and well-defined immobilization. This will also show that single molecule research in principle is the synthesis of an insight into the function of nature and nano-biotechnology (manipulation): thus of analytics, construction, and back.

Oriented immobilization of chymotrypsin by use of suitable antibodies coupled to a nonporous solid support

In order to eliminate the kinetic limitation of chymotryptic hydrolysis of proteins due to diffusion, nonporous hydroxyalkyl methacrylate solid support was developed and used for oriented immobilization of chymotrypsin by means of suitable polyclonal antibodies. Nonporous microspheres were prepared by dispersion copolymerization of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate and ethylene dimethacrylate in an alcohol-toluene mixture stabilized with cellulose acetate butyrate. The resulting particles were 1.2 microm in diameter and possessed narrow size distribution. After modification with adipic acid dihydrazide they contained 2 micromol of reactive groups available for coupling of anti-chymotrypsin antibodies. Prepared immunosorbent adsorbed 166.7 microg of chymotrypsin per 1 g of dry carrier. Immobilized chymotrypsin retained practically 100% of its native proteolytic activity. Kinetic parameters of catalysis by chymotrypsin immobilized via this way were improved due to the good steric accessibility of the enzyme active site for high-molecular-mass substrates, when digestion of proteins in batch experiments was used.

Bioaffinity based immobilization of enzymes

Procedures that utilize the affinities of biomolecules and ligands for the immobilization of enzymes are gaining increasing acceptance in the construction of sensitive enzyme-based analytical devices as well as for other applications. The strong affinity of polyclonal/monoclonal antibodies for specific enzymes and those of lectins for glycoenzymes bearing appropriate oligosaccharides have been generally employed for the purpose. Potential of affinity pairs like cellulose-cellulose binding domain bearing enzymes and immobilized metal ionsurface histidine bearing enzymes has also been recognised. The bioaffinity based immobilization procedures usually yield preparations exhibiting high catalytic activity and improved stability against denaturation. Bioaffinity based immobilizations are usually reversible facilitating the reuse of support matrix, orient the enzymes favourably and offer the possibility of enzyme immobilization directly from partially pure enzyme preparations or even cell lysates. Enzyme lacking innate ability to bind to various affinity supports can be made to bind to them by chemically or genetically linking the enzymes with appropriate polypeptides/domains like the cellulose binding domain, protein A, histidine-rich peptides, single chain antibodies, etc.

Oriented immobilization of biologically active proteins as a tool for revealing protein interactions and function

The advantages of oriented immobilization of biologically active proteins are good steric accessibilities of active binding sites and increased stability. This not only may help to increase the production of preparative procedures but is likely to promote current knowledge about how the living cells or tissues operate. Protein inactivation starts with the unfolding of the protein molecule by the contact of water with hydrophobic clusters located on the surface of protein molecules, which results in ice-like water structure. Reduction of the nonpolar surface area by the formation of a suitable biospecifc complex or by use of carbohydrate moieties thus may stabilize proteins. This review discusses oriented immobilization of antibodies by use of immobilized protein A or G. The section about oriented immobilization of proteins by use of their suitable antibodies covers immobilization of enzymes utilizing their adsorption on suitable immunosorbents prepared using monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies, preparation of bioaffinity adsorbent for the isolation of concanavalin A and immobilization of antibodies by use of antimouse immunoglobulin G, Fc-specific (i.e. specific towards the constant region of the molecule). In the further section immobilization of antibodies and enzymes through their carbohydrate moieties is described. Oriented immobilization of proteins can be also based on the use of boronate affinity gel or immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography technique. Biotin-avidin or streptavidin techniques are mostly used methods for oriented immobilization. Site-specific attachment of proteins to the surface of solid supports can be also achieved by enzyme, e.g., subtilisin, after introduction a single cysteine residue by site-directed mutagenesis.

Stabilization and surface modification of monoclonal antibodies by 'bi-layer encagement'

A two step simple procedure for antibody stabilization in soluble form was developed. The antibody is first treated with low molecular weight polyaldehyde (polyglutaraldehyde). Following removal of non-bound polyaldehyde the antibody-polyaldehyde conjugate is crosslinked by polyamine (alkyl amine derivative of polyglutaraldehyde). Feasibility studies were successfully conducted employing monoclonal antibody raised against horseradish peroxidase as model system. The stabilized antibody preparation exhibited improved thermal stability, enhanced resistance to proteolytic digestion and higher 'specific binding activity' in ELISA test, without losing its capability to bind large antigen (enzyme) or being recognized by another antibody (goat anti-mouse IgG).

Enzyme immobilization on a low-cost magnetic support: kinetic studies on immobilized and coimmobilized glucose oxidase and glucoamylase

Glucose oxidase (GOx) and glucoamylase (GA) were immobilized and coimmobilized through their carbohydrate moieties onto polyethyleneimine-coated magnetite crosslinked with glutaraldehyde and derivatized with adipic dihydrazide. The carbohydrates were oxidized with sodium periodate, and at optimal concentration, their Vm increased up to 18% for GOx and up to 16% for GA. After immobilization, a remaining activity as high as 88% and 70% for GA with maltose and maltodextrin respectively as substrates was obtained, independently of the particle loading. On the contrary, the remaining activity of GOx strongly decreased at high particle loading. Nevertheless, half of its initial activity was recovered at low loading and was not significantly affected when GA was coimmobilized by saturating the reactive groups left on the particle. The Vm of both immobilized enzymes was improved by crosslinking their carbohydrates with adipic dihydrazide, a treatment which allows further coimmobilization of the other enzyme on a second layer.

Galactosylation as a tool for the stabilization and immobilization of proteins

This paper presents a brief overview of the role that the carbohydrate moieties of biologically active glycoproteins play in the stabilization and oriented immobilization of these proteins on solid supports. The synthetic galactosylation of hydrophobic areas or their surroundings on the protein surface improves the structural stability of native proteins against inactivation by the interaction of water with hydrophobic clusters. The lowering of the degree solvation of tyrosine residues in galactosylated trypsin and the model substance N-carbobenzoxy-L-glutamyl-L-tyrosine was proved by Raman spectroscopy. D-Galactose residues can be selectively oxidized, either with periodate or enzymatically, and the aldehyde groups thus formed are used for the immobilization of glycoproteins on solid supports with hydrazide groups under mild conditions.

Eupergit C as a carrier for high-performance liquid chromatographic-based immunopurification of antigens and antibodies

An immunoaffinity purification system using C30N and C1Z Eupergit C beads was developed and optimized. Poly- and monoclonal antibodies were purified using immobilized antigens and antigens were purified using immobilized antibodies. Antigens were used that possess enzymic activities and the efficiency of antigen binding was determined from the enzymic activity of the matrix-bound immunocomplexes. High-performance immunoaffinity purification using Eupergit C beads proved to be highly specific, reproducible, free from protein leakage and possessed a low degree of non-specific adsorption of tissue proteins. These characteristics of the system were illustrated by the isolation of immunoglobulin G from serum and of human decidua proteins from the decidua tissue and from seminal plasma. These proteins were obtained at high purity in a single purification step, as shown by sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.