Expression and folding of an antibody fragment selected in vivo for high expression levels in Escherichia coli cytoplasm

Antibody-mediated enzyme formation: Its legacy at age fifty-four

Antibody-mediated enzyme formation is a phenomenon first described in 1968 and further studied by molecular Immunologists and Biochemists over the following five decades. The present review is made mainly by analyzing the 27 articles concerned with AMEF that appeared over the course of 47 years, commenting 16 original figures selected to be re-printed in AMEF's Legacy. We, the reviewers, started by revisiting our own "insider's" experience of discovery, and followed by considering all results, our own and of members of other AMEF Labs. We had planned to conclude the review by correlating the various AMEF mutants to a detailed knowledge of the consensus betaGal structure. However, we became aware of several "robust" papers, published between 1989 and 2014, by authors outside of AMEF Labs. We familiarly called this surge: "The Second Wave" and adorned it with a doodle in Hokusai style. We were thrilled and happy to take them on board and properly examined their data. A team of this second wave had imagined unique uses for AMEF, and new doors to modern biotechnology. Another one had used AMEF as Tool and Marker to attain high levels of crystallography, solving puzzles of conformation, and ultimate structure. Together, they doubled our motivation to review AMEF. Serendipity gives us back the pleasure of finding, a treat at any age.

Molecular mechanism of antibody-mediated activation of β-galactosidase

Binding of a single-chain Fv antibody to Escherichia coli β-galactosidase (β-gal) is known to stabilize the enzyme and activate several inactive point mutants, historically called antibody-mediated enzyme formation mutants. To understand the nature of this activation, we have determined by electron cryo-microscopy the structure of the complex between β-gal and the antibody scFv13R4. Our structure localizes the scFv13R4 binding site to the crevice between domains 1 and 3 in each β-gal subunit. The mutations that scFv13R4 counteracts are located between the antibody binding site and the active site of β-gal, at one end of the TIM-barrel that forms domain 3 where the substrate lactose is hydrolyzed. The mode of binding suggests how scFv stabilizes both the active site of β-gal and the tetrameric state.

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Antibodies can activate inactive mutant β-galactosidase enzymes

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Cryo-EM analysis reveals the structure of such an antibody complex

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One Fv antibody binds to each of four β-galactosidase subunits

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Activation occurs by internal stabilization within each subunit

Efficient isolation of soluble intracellular single-chain antibodies using the twin-arginine translocation machinery

One of the most commonly used recombinant antibody formats is the single-chain variable fragment (scFv) that consists of the antibody variable heavy chain connected to the variable light chain by a flexible linker. Since disulfide bonds are often necessary for scFv folding, it can be challenging to express scFvs in the reducing environment of the cytosol. Thus, we sought to develop a method for antigen-independent selection of scFvs that are stable in the reducing cytosol of bacteria. To this end, we applied a recently developed genetic selection for protein folding and solubility based on the quality control feature of the Escherichia coli twin-arginine translocation (Tat) pathway. This selection employs a tripartite sandwich fusion of a protein-of-interest with an N-terminal Tat-specific signal peptide and C-terminal TEM1 beta-lactamase, thereby coupling antibiotic resistance with Tat pathway export. Here, we adapted this assay to develop intrabody selection after Tat export (ISELATE), a high-throughput selection strategy for the identification of solubility-enhanced scFv sequences. Using ISELATE for three rounds of laboratory evolution, it was possible to evolve a soluble scFv from an insoluble parental sequence. We show also that ISELATE enables focusing of an scFv library in soluble sequence space before functional screening and thus can be used to increase the likelihood of finding functional intrabodies. Finally, the technique was used to screen a large repertoire of naïve scFvs for clones that conferred significant levels of soluble accumulation. Our results reveal that the Tat quality control mechanism can be harnessed for molecular evolution of scFvs that are soluble in the reducing cytoplasm of E. coli.

A focused antibody library for selecting scFvs expressed at high levels in the cytoplasm

BACKGROUND

Intrabodies are defined as antibody molecules which are ectopically expressed inside the cell. Such intrabodies can be used to visualize or inhibit the targeted antigen in living cells. However, most antibody fragments cannot be used as intrabodies because they do not fold under the reducing conditions of the cell cytosol and nucleus.

RESULTS

We describe the construction and validation of a large synthetic human single chain antibody fragment library based on a unique framework and optimized for cytoplasmic expression. Focusing the library by mimicking the natural diversity of CDR3 loops ensured that the scFvs were fully human and functional. We show that the library is highly diverse and functional since it has been possible to isolate by phage-display several strong binders against the five proteins tested in this study, the Syk and Aurora-A protein kinases, the alphabeta tubulin dimer, the papillomavirus E6 protein and the core histones. Some of the selected scFvs are expressed at an exceptional high level in the bacterial cytoplasm, allowing the purification of 1 mg of active scFv from only 20 ml of culture. Finally, we show that after three rounds of selection against core histones, more than half of the selected scFvs were active when expressed in vivo in human cells since they were essentially localized in the nucleus.

CONCLUSION

This new library is a promising tool not only for an easy and large-scale selection of functional intrabodies but also for the isolation of highly expressed scFvs that could be used in numerous biotechnological and therapeutic applications.

Directed evolution of single-chain Fv for cytoplasmic expression using the beta-galactosidase complementation assay results in proteins highly susceptible to protease degradation and aggregation

Background

Antibody fragments are molecules widely used for diagnosis and therapy. A large amount of protein is frequently required for such applications. New approaches using folding reporter enzymes have recently been proposed to increase soluble expression of foreign proteins in Escherichia coli. To date, these methods have only been used to screen for proteins with better folding properties but have never been used to select from a large library of mutants. In this paper we apply one of these methods to select mutations that increase the soluble expression of two antibody fragments in the cytoplasm of E. coli.

Results

We used the β-galactosidase α-complementation system to monitor and evolve two antibody fragments for high expression levels in E. coli cytoplasm. After four rounds of mutagenesis and selection from large library repertoires (>10⁷ clones), clones exhibiting high levels of β-galactosidase activity were isolated. These clones expressed a higher amount of soluble fusion protein than the wild type in the cytoplasm, particularly in a strain deficient in the cytoplasmic Lon protease. The increase in the soluble expression level of the unfused scFv was, however, much less pronounced, and the unfused proteins proved to be more aggregation prone than the wild type. In addition, the soluble expression levels were not correlated with the β-galactosidase activity present in the cells.

Conclusion

This is the first report of a selection for soluble protein expression using a fusion reporter method. Contrary to anticipated results, high enzymatic activity did not correlate with the soluble protein expression level. This was presumably due to free α-peptide released from the protein fusion by the host proteases. This means that the α-complementation assay does not sense the fusion expression level, as hypothesized, but rather the amount of free released α-peptide. Thus, the system does not select, in our case, for higher soluble protein expression level but rather for higher protease susceptibility of the fusion protein.

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.