Expression and functional reconstitution of a recombinant antibody (Fab') specific for human apolipoprotein B-100

Challenges in Expression and Purification of Functional Fab Fragments in E. coli: Current Strategies and Perspectives

Microbial host systems remain the most efficient and cost-effective chassis for biotherapeutics production. Escherichia coli is often the preferred host due to ease of cloning, scale-up, high product yields, and most importantly, cost-effective cultivation. E. coli often experience difficulties in producing biologically active therapeutics such as Fab fragments, which require protein folding and subsequent three-dimensional structure development. This paper outlines the recent improvements in upstream and downstream unit operations for producing Fab fragments in E. coli. Monoclonal antibody fragments (Fab) are a rising class of biotherapeutics and their production has been optimised using coexpression of molecular chaperones such as DsbC or DnaK–DnaJ–GrpE, as well as strain engineering for post-translational modifications such as disulphide bridging. Different media systems such as EnBase and combining nitrogen source supplementation with low-temperature cultivation have resulted in improvement in cell integrity, protein expression, and protein refolding. The recovery of native proteins from insoluble inclusion bodies can be improved by adjusting refolding conditions, as well as by incorporating multimodal and affinity chromatography for achieving high product yields in purification. Recent developments summarised in this review may tune the E. coli expression system to produce more complex and glycosylated proteins for therapeutic use in the near future.

Construction of a single-chain variable-fragment antibody against the superantigen Staphylococcal enterotoxin B

Staphylococcal food poisoning (SFP) is one of the most prevalent causes of food-borne illness throughout the world. SFP is caused by 21 different types of staphylococcal enterotoxins produced by Staphylococcus aureus. Among these, staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) is the most potent toxin and is a listed biological warfare (BW) agent. Therefore, development of immunological reagents for detection of SEB is of the utmost importance. High-affinity and specific monoclonal antibodies are being used for detection of SEB, but hybridoma clones tend to lose their antibody-secreting ability over time. This problem can be overcome by the use of recombinant antibodies produced in a bacterial system. In the present investigation, genes from a hybridoma clone encoding monoclonal antibody against SEB were immortalized using antibody phage display technology. A murine phage display library containing single-chain variable-fragment (ScFv) antibody genes was constructed in a pCANTAB 5E phagemid vector. Phage particles displaying ScFv were rescued by reinfection of helper phage followed by four rounds of biopanning for selection of SEB binding ScFv antibody fragments by using phage enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Soluble SEB-ScFv antibodies were characterized from one of the clones showing high affinity for SEB. The anti-SEB ScFv antibody was highly specific, and its affinity constant was 3.16 nM as determined by surface plasmon resonance (SPR). These results demonstrate that the recombinant antibody constructed by immortalizing the antibody genes from a hybridoma clone is useful for immunodetection of SEB.

Expression, purification, and refolding of recombinant fusion protein hIL-2/mGM-CSF

OBJECTIVE

To study the activities of interleukin (IL)-2 and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) (hIL-2/mGM-CSF).

METHODS

SOE PCR was used to change the linker of the fusion protein for higher activities. The fusion protein was expressed in Escherichia coli (E. coli) BL21 (DE3) in inclusion body (IB) form. After IB was extracted and clarified, it was denatured and purified by affinity chromatography. The protein was refolded by dilution in a L-arginine refolding buffer and refined by anion chromatography. The protein activity was detected by cytokine-dependent cell proliferation assay.

RESULTS

The expression of hIL-2/mGM-CSF in E. coli yielded approximately 20 mg protein /L culture and the purity was about 90%. The specific activities of IL-2 and GM-CSF were 5.4 x 10(6) IU/mg and 7.1 x 10(6) IU/mg, respectively.

CONCLUSION

This research provides important information about the anti-tumor activity of hIL-2/mGM-CSF in vivo, thus facilitating future clinical research on hIL-2/mGM-CSF used in immune therapy.

High efficiency reconstitution of a human-mouse chimeric Fab of CAb-1 antibody specific to human colon cancer

Monoclonal antibody (mAb) has been widely applied in the treatment of human diseases, especially in malignant tumours. However, most antibodies produced in mouse by hybridoma technology might induce severe human anti-mouse reactions. We had reported a murine mAb CAb-1 of therapeutic interest for its specifically binding to a cell surface glycoprotein of human colon cancer. Here, we attempted to generate a reconstituted human-mouse chimeric Fab (cFab) of CAb-1 in vitro to reduce its antigenicity and increase its capacity of penetration. First, the genes of heavy and light chain variable region (VH, VL) of CAb-1 were cloned. Then, the chimeric light chain (cL) and Fd (cFd) were constructed and expressed in Escherichia coli. Finally, the reconstituted cFab was obtained by gradient dialysis of the mixture of cFd and cL. SDS-PAGE and western blot analysis showed the reconstituted cFab with a recovery rate of 70.2% when the initial total concentration of cL and cFd proteins to be 100 microg/ml. The reconstituted cFab maintained the affinity and specificity to colon cancer cells compared with its parental antibody as determined by immunostaining analysis, FACS and ELISA. Our results established a foundation for further application of the cFab in diagnosis and treatment of colon cancer.

Recombinant production of a VL single domain antibody in Escherichia coli and analysis of its interaction with peptostreptococcal protein L

A kappa-light chain from a Fab expression system was truncated by the insertion of a stop codon in the gene sequence to produce a variable light (VL) single domain antibody (dAb). Here, we describe the expression of dAb in the periplasm of Escherichia coli through fermentation in a defined media. Immunoglobulin binding domains from peptostreptococcal protein L (PpL) have been shown to bind specifically to kappa-light chains. We have produced recombinant PpL, at high yield, and this was used to custom-produce PpL-Sepharose affinity columns. Here, we show that the affinity purification of VL dAb by this method is simple and efficient with no apparent loss in protein at any stage. The truncated dAb protein product was confirmed by electrospray mass spectrometry and N-terminal sequencing. When analyzed by SDS-PAGE it was shown to be over 95% pure and produced at yields of 35-65 mg/L of culture medium. The dAb protein produced was shown by NMR and CD to be a folded beta-sheet domain. This domain is bound by PpL with a Kd of approximately 50 nM as determined by stopped-flow fluorimetry.

Overview on the use of therapeutic antibodies in drug discovery

The number of therapeutic antibodies approved by regulatory agencies as novel drugs and the number of antibodies in development has increased significantly. The modular nature of antibody structure has enabled researchers to more predictably design therapeutic antibodies by choosing appropriate functional features most appropriate for a given antibody target and clinical indication. Advances in recombinant antibody technologies have allowed the routine generation of antibodies that can satisfy stringent drug design criteria, such as low immunogenicity, high affinity, target specificity, and commercially viable manufacturing methods. Engineering design opportunities exist for both the variable and the constant regions that encompass, in addition to antigen specificity and affinity, effector functions that mediate immune complex clearance or pharmacokinetics. These are discussed in the context of relevant in vivo and in vitro technologies, such as human IgG transgenic mice, phage display, and biologics manufacturing. Finally, therapeutic antibodies are compared with traditional drugs with respect to target class, selectivity, route of administration, intellectual property issues, and lead discovery and optimization.

Prokaryotic expression and renaturation of engineering chimeric Fab antibody against human hepatoma

AIM: To express chimeric Fd (cFd) and chimeric light chain (cL) in E. coli respectively and refold them into chimeric Fab (cFab) antibody.

METHODS: cFd and cL genes were respectively inserted into the prokaryotic expression vector pET32a to construct recombinant vectors pET32a/cFd and pET32a/cL. Then, the competent E. coli cells were transformed by the recombinant vectors and induced by IPTG. Moreover, a large quantity of cFd and cL expression products were prepared and mixed with equal molar to refold into cFab by gradient dialysis. The refolded products were identified and analyzed by sodium SDS-PAGE, Western blotting, ELISA and HPLC.

RESULTS: High efficient prokaryotic expressions of both cFd and cL in the form of non-fusion protein were obtained with the expression levels of 28.3% and 32.3% of total bacteria proteins, respectively. Their relative molecular masses were all 24 ku or so, and both of them mainly existed in the form of inclusion bodies. In addition, cFd and cL were successfully refolded into cFab by gradient dialysis, with about 59.45% of recovery when the starting total protein concentration was 100 μg/mL. The renatured cFab could specifically bind to related antigen with high affinity.

CONCLUSION: The cFab antibody against human hepatoma was highly and efficiently expressed and refolded, which laid a solid foundation for studying its application in the treatment of hepatoma.