Characterisation of conjugates of thrombin-treated single chain urokinase-type plasminogen activator with a monoclonal antibody specific for crosslinked fibrin

Advances in thrombolytic therapy

Alteplase and saruplase are more fibrin-specific thrombolytic drugs than anistreplase. These and the thrombolytic drugs of the first generation (streptokinase and urokinase) have shortcomings and limitations. The prolonged intravenous maintenance infusions have been replaced by a bolus injection, accelerated infusions, or the combined intravenous administration of thrombolytic agents. Numerous truncated alteplase or saruplase molecules have been constructed by deletion and domain substitution or hybrids made of the two molecules without gaining in thrombolytic potency. Recombinant staphylokinase and plasminogen activator from bat saliva have some interesting properties and are being investigated. Thrombus-targeted thrombolytic drugs were constructed using monoclonal antibodies against fibrin fragments or against epitopes of activated platelets. Fibrin-specific thrombolytic drugs require the concomitant use of a potent antithrombotic drug to prevent reocclusion. Whether hirudin or synthetic thrombin inhibitors are superior to heparin and whether novel antiplatelet agents, including monoclonal antibodies to platelet receptors and disintegrins, are more effective than aspirin is under clinical investigation. The place of stable analogues of prostacyclin during thrombolytic treatment is still unsettled.

Construction and characterization of a functional chimeric murine-human antibody directed against human fibrin fragment-D dimer

Fibrin-directed monoclonal antibodies may be clinically useful for in vitro thrombus imaging and for the targeting of fibrinolytic agents to blood clots. One such murine monoclonal antibody, (mAb-15C5), raised against the fragment-D dimer epitope of cross-linked human fibrin, was previously characterized [Holvoet, P., Stassen, J. M., Hashimoto, Y., Spriggs, D., Devos, P. & Collen, D. (1989) Thromb. Haemostasis 61, 307-313] has recently been cloned and expressed [Vandamme, A.-M., Bulens, F., Bernar, H., Nelles, L., Lijnen, H. R. & Collen, D. (1990) Eur. J. Biochem. 192, 767-775]. In order to reduce the immunogenicity of the murine mAb-15C5 in man, we have now constructed a murine--human chimera of mAb-15C5, by substituting the cDNA sequences encoding the constant regions of the murine kappa light chain and gamma 1 heavy chain by the corresponding human genomic sequences. Both chimeric murine--human Ig chains were cloned into two separately selectable expression vectors, which were contransfected into Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. Murine--human chimeric mAb-15C5 (mAb-15C5Hu) was purified from the conditioned medium of selected cell lines by chromatography on Zn-chelating Sepharose, protein-A-Sepharose and on insolubilized antigen (fragment-D dimer), with a final yield of 29 micrograms/l and a recovery of 33%. SDS/PAGE without reduction revealed a homogeneous band with a mobility similar to that of natural mAb-15C5, whereas after reduction, both the heavy and the light chains had slightly slower mobilities than their natural counterparts. Expression in the presence of tunicamycin suggested that the differences in gamma 1-chain mobility were due to different N-glycosylation patterns. Immunoblotting of proteins from SDS gels showed immunological reactivity of recombinant mAb-15C5Hu with goat anti-(human IgG) IgG and of recombinant and natural murine mAb-15C5 with goat anti-(mouse IgG) IgG. Competitive binding revealed a comparable affinity of recombinant murine mAb-15C5, recombinant mAb-15C5Hu and natural mAb-15C5, for fragment-D dimer, indicating that recombinant mAb-15C5Hu was obtained in a functionally intact form. Thus, mAb-15C5Hu may constitute a useful alternative to mAb-15C5 for in vivo use in man.