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Gaa R, Kumari K, Mayer HM, Yanakieva D, Tsai SP, Joshi S, Guenther R, Doerner A. An integrated mammalian library approach for optimization and enhanced microfluidics-assisted antibody hit discovery. ARTIFICIAL CELLS, NANOMEDICINE, AND BIOTECHNOLOGY 2023; 51:74-82. [PMID: 36762883 DOI: 10.1080/21691401.2023.2173219] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/11/2023]
Abstract
Recent years have seen the development of a variety of mammalian library approaches for display and secretion mode. Advantages include library approaches for engineering, preservation of precious immune repertoires and their repeated interrogation, as well as screening in final therapeutic format and host. Mammalian display approaches for antibody optimization exploit these advantages, necessitating the generation of large libraries but in turn enabling early screening for both manufacturability and target specificity. For suitable libraries, high antibody integration rates and resulting monoclonality need to be balanced - we present a solution for sufficient transmutability and acceptable monoclonality by applying an optimized ratio of coding to non-coding lentivirus. The recent advent of microfluidic-assisted hit discovery represents a perfect match to mammalian libraries in secretion mode, as the lower throughput fits well with the facile generation of libraries comprising a few million functional clones. In the presented work, Chinese Hamster Ovary cells were engineered to both express the target of interest and secrete antibodies in relevant formats, and specific clones were strongly enriched by high throughput screening for autocrine cellular binding. The powerful combination of mammalian secretion libraries and microfluidics-assisted hit discovery could reduce attrition rates and increase the probability to identify the best possible therapeutic antibody hits faster.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ramona Gaa
- Protein Engineering and Antibody Technologies, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Kavita Kumari
- Discovery Biology, Syngene International, Phase-IV, Bangalore, India
| | - Hannah Melina Mayer
- Protein Engineering and Antibody Technologies, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Desislava Yanakieva
- Protein Engineering and Antibody Technologies, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Shang-Pu Tsai
- Protein Engineering and Antibody Technologies, EMD Serono, Billerica, MA, USA
| | - Saurabh Joshi
- Discovery Biology, Syngene International, Phase-IV, Bangalore, India
| | - Ralf Guenther
- Protein Engineering and Antibody Technologies, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Achim Doerner
- Protein Engineering and Antibody Technologies, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany
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Gaa R, Mayer HM, Noack D, Kumari K, Guenther R, Tsai SP, Ji Q, Doerner A. Mammalian display to secretion switchable libraries for antibody preselection and high throughput functional screening. MAbs 2023; 15:2251190. [PMID: 37646089 PMCID: PMC10469430 DOI: 10.1080/19420862.2023.2251190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2023] [Revised: 08/10/2023] [Accepted: 08/20/2023] [Indexed: 09/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Recently, there has been a co-evolution of mammalian libraries and diverse microfluidic approaches for therapeutic antibody hit discovery. Mammalian libraries enable the preservation of full immune repertoires, produce hit candidates in final format and facilitate broad combinatorial bispecific antibody screening, while several available microfluidic methodologies offer opportunities for rapid high-content screens. Here, we report proof-of-concept studies exploring the potential of combining microfluidic technologies with mammalian libraries for antibody discovery. First, antibody secretion, target co-expression and integration of appropriate reporter cell lines enabled the selection of in-trans acting agonistic bispecific antibodies. Second, a functional screen for internalization was established and comparison of autocrine versus co-encapsulation setups highlighted the advantages of an autocrine one cell approach. Third, synchronization of antibody-secreting cells prior to microfluidic screens reduced assay variability. Furthermore, a display to secretion switchable system was developed and applied for pre-enrichment of antibody clones with high manufacturability in conjunction with subsequent screening for functional properties. These case studies demonstrate the system's feasibility and may serve as basis for further development of integrated workflows combining manufacturability sorting and functional screens for the identification of optimal therapeutic antibody candidates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ramona Gaa
- NBE Technologies, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany
| | | | | | - Kavita Kumari
- Discovery Biology, Syngene International, Bangalore, India
| | | | | | - Qingyong Ji
- NBE Technologies, EMD Serono, Billerica, MA, USA
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Masuda H, Sawada A, Hashimoto SI, Tamai K, Lin KY, Harigai N, Kurosawa K, Ohta K, Seo H, Itou H. Fast-tracking antibody maturation using a B cell-based display system. MAbs 2022; 14:2122275. [PMID: 36202784 PMCID: PMC9542628 DOI: 10.1080/19420862.2022.2122275] [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] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Affinity maturation, an essential component of antibody engineering, is crucial for developing therapeutic antibodies. Cell display system coupled with somatic hypermutation (SHM) initiated by activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) is a commonly used technique for affinity maturation. AID introduces targeted DNA lesions into hotspots of immunoglobulin (Ig) gene loci followed by erroneous DNA repair, leading to biased mutations in the complementary determining regions. However, systems that use an in vivo mimicking mechanism often require several rounds of selection to enrich clones possessing accumulated mutations. We previously described the human ADLib® system, which features autonomous, AID-mediated diversification in Ig gene loci of a chicken B cell line DT40 and streamlines human antibody generation and optimization in one integrated platform. In this study, we further engineered DT40 capable of receiving exogenous antibody genes and examined whether the antibody could be affinity matured. The Ig genes of three representative anti-hVEGF-A antibodies originating from the human ADLib® were introduced; the resulting human IgG1 antibodies had up to 76.4-fold improvement in binding affinities (sub-picomolar KD) within just one round of optimization, owing to efficient accumulation of functional mutations. Moreover, we successfully improved the affinity of a mouse hybridoma-derived anti-hCDCP1 antibody using the engineered DT40, and the observed mutations remained effective in the post-humanized antibody as exhibited by an 8.2-fold increase of in vitro cytotoxicity without compromised physical stability. These results demonstrated the versatility of the novel B cell-based affinity maturation system as an easy-to-use antibody optimization tool regardless of the species of origin.Abbreviations: ADLib®: Autonomously diversifying library, ADLib® KI-AMP: ADLib® knock-in affinity maturation platform, AID: activation-induced cytidine deaminase, CDRs: complementary-determining regions, DIVAC: diversification activator, ECD: extracellular domain, FACS: fluorescence-activated cell sorting, FCM: flow cytometry, HC: heavy chainIg: immunoglobulin, LC: light chain, NGS: next-generation sequencing, PBD: pyrrolobenzodiazepine, SHM: somatic hypermutation, SPR: surface plasmon resonance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hitomi Masuda
- Research Laboratories, Chiome Bioscience Inc, Tokyo, Japan,CONTACT Hitomi Masuda Research Laboratories, Chiome Bioscience Inc, Sumitomo-Fudosan Nishi-shinjuku bldg. No. 6, 3-12-1 Honmachi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo151-0071, Japan
| | - Atsushi Sawada
- Research Laboratories, Chiome Bioscience Inc, Tokyo, Japan
| | | | - Kanako Tamai
- Research Laboratories, Chiome Bioscience Inc, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Ke-Yi Lin
- Research Laboratories, Chiome Bioscience Inc, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Naoto Harigai
- Research Laboratories, Chiome Bioscience Inc, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Kohei Kurosawa
- Research Laboratories, Chiome Bioscience Inc, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Kunihiro Ohta
- Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Hidetaka Seo
- Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Hiroshi Itou
- Research Laboratories, Chiome Bioscience Inc, Tokyo, Japan,Hiroshi Itou Research Laboratories, Chiome Bioscience Inc, Sumitomo-Fudosan Nishi-shinjuku bldg. No. 6, 3-12-1, Honmachi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 151-0071 Japan
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de Brito PM, Saruga A, Cardoso M, Goncalves J. Methods and cell-based strategies to produce antibody libraries: current state. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 2021; 105:7215-7224. [PMID: 34524471 DOI: 10.1007/s00253-021-11570-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2021] [Revised: 09/01/2021] [Accepted: 09/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Antibodies are critical components of the adaptive immune system, whose therapeutic applications have been growing exponentially in the last years. Discovery and development of therapeutic antibodies encompasses in vivo immunization, synthetic libraries, and surface display methodologies. To overcome some of their limitations, several platforms in higher eukaryotic cells have been developed. Moreover, these platforms aim to replicate in the bench both primary and secondary antibody diversification mechanisms that occur in vivo. Here, we describe the latest strategies that have been used to mirror both naïve and affinity-maturated antibody repertoire. KEY POINTS: • Therapeutic antibodies are one of the most promising classes of drugs to fight diseases. • Antibodies discovered through hybridoma or display technologies require further engineering. • Innovative antibody discovery platforms in higher eukaryotic cells have been developed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paula Matos de Brito
- Faculty of Pharmacy, iMed.ULisboa - Research Institute for Medicines, University of Lisbon, Av. Professor Gama Pinto, 1649-019, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Andreia Saruga
- Faculty of Pharmacy, iMed.ULisboa - Research Institute for Medicines, University of Lisbon, Av. Professor Gama Pinto, 1649-019, Lisbon, Portugal.,INESC MN - Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores - Microsystems and Nanotecnologies, R. Alves Redol 9, 1000-029, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Miguel Cardoso
- Faculty of Pharmacy, iMed.ULisboa - Research Institute for Medicines, University of Lisbon, Av. Professor Gama Pinto, 1649-019, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Joao Goncalves
- Faculty of Pharmacy, iMed.ULisboa - Research Institute for Medicines, University of Lisbon, Av. Professor Gama Pinto, 1649-019, Lisbon, Portugal.
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Takamura N, Seo H, Ohta K. TET3 dioxygenase modulates gene conversion at the avian immunoglobulin variable region via demethylation of non-CpG sites in pseudogene templates. Genes Cells 2021; 26:121-135. [PMID: 33421268 PMCID: PMC7986818 DOI: 10.1111/gtc.12828] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2020] [Revised: 01/04/2021] [Accepted: 01/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Diversification of the avian primary immunoglobulin (Ig) repertoire is achieved in developing B cells by somatic hypermutation (SHM) and gene conversion (GCV). GCV is a type of homologous recombination that unidirectionally transfers segments of Ig pseudogenes to Ig variable domains. It is regulated by epigenetic mechanisms like histone modifications, but the role of DNA methylation remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that the chicken B‐cell line DT40 lacking TET3, a member of the TET (Ten‐eleven translocation) family dioxygenases that facilitate DNA demethylation, exhibited a marked reduction in GCV activity in Ig variable regions. This was accompanied by a drop in the bulk levels of 5‐hydroxymethylcytosine, an oxidized derivative of 5‐methylcytosine, whereas TET1‐deficient or TET2‐deficient DT40 strains did not exhibit such effects. Deletion of TET3 caused little effects on the expression of proteins required for SHM and GCV, but induced hypermethylation in some Ig pseudogene templates. Notably, the enhanced methylation occurred preferably on non‐CpG cytosines. Disruption of both TET1 and TET3 significantly inhibited the expression of activation‐induced cytidine deaminase (AID), an essential player in Ig diversification. These results uncover unique roles of TET proteins in avian Ig diversification, highlighting the potential importance of TET3 in maintaining hypomethylation In Ig pseudogenes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natsuki Takamura
- Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Japan
| | - Hidetaka Seo
- Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Japan
| | - Kunihiro Ohta
- Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Japan.,Universal Biology Institute, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Japan
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