Expression, production, and renaturation of a functional single-chain variable antibody fragment (scFv) against human ICAM-1

Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) is an important factor in the progression of inflammatory responses in vivo. To develop a new anti-inflammatory drug to block the biological activity of ICAM-1, we produced a monoclonal antibody (Ka=4.19×10−8 M) against human ICAM-1. The anti-ICAM-1 single-chain variable antibody fragment (scFv) was expressed at a high level as inclusion bodies in Escherichia coli. We refolded the scFv (Ka=2.35×10−7 M) by ion-exchange chromatography, dialysis, and dilution. The results showed that column chromatography refolding by high-performance Q Sepharose had remarkable advantages over conventional dilution and dialysis methods. Furthermore, the anti-ICAM-1 scFv yield of about 60 mg/L was higher with this method. The purity of the final product was greater than 90%, as shown by denaturing gel electrophoresis. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, cell culture, and animal experiments were used to assess the immunological properties and biological activities of the renatured scFv.

Production of antibody fragment (Fab) throughout Escherichia coli fed-batch fermentation process: Changes in titre, location and form of product

Background: Recombinant proteins, including antibodies and antibody fragments, often contain disulfide bond bridges that are necessary for their folding, stability and function. Production of disulfide-bond-containing proteins in the periplasm of Escherichia coli has been very useful, due to unique characteristics of the periplasm, for obtaining fully active and correctly folded products and for alleviating downstream processing. Results: In this study, fed-batch cultivation of Escherichia coli (E. coli) for production of Fab D1.3, which is an anti-hen egg white lysozyme (HEWL) antibody fragment was carried out at 37ºC, and the bacterial cells were induced by adding 0.1 mM IPTG to the culture medium. Fermentor was sampled over the course of fermentation; the bacterial cells were centrifugally separated from the culture broth and subjected to osmotic shock (with excluding HEWL) and sonication procedures. The resulting fractions were analysed for Fab using a combination of ELISA, SDS-PAGE and Western blotting and changes in product titre, location, and form was assessed throughout growth. It was shown that osmotic shock released the Fab from the periplasm very efficiently and its efficacy was 20-45% more than sonication. This study demonstrates that, at high cell density cultivation in fermentor, target product can appear inside and outside the cells, depending on the time of induction. The maximum amount of Fab (47 mg/l) in the periplasm was reached at 14 hrs cultivation (4 hrs post induction), being suitable time for cell harvest, selective periplasmic extraction and downstream capture. The Fab increasingly leaked into the culture medium, and reached its maximum culture medium titre of ~78 mg/l after 6 hrs post induction. After 16 hrs cultivation (6 hrs post induction) the amount of Fab remained constant in different locations within and outside the cells. Western blot analysis of cell fractions showed that certain amount of the Fab was also produced in the cells as insoluble form. Conclusions: In this work we showed that the production of Fab in the periplasm during high cell density cultivation of E. coli in fermentor can be challenging as the product may appear in various locations within and outside the cells. To exploit the advantages of the periplasmic expression systems for purification in downstream processing, bacterial cells should be harvested when they maintain the majority of the target protein in their periplasmic space (i.e. 4 hrs post induction).

Engineering antibody fragments: replicating the immune system and beyond: [review] / La ingeniería de fragmentos de anticuerpos: imitando y expandiendo el sistema inmune: [revisión]

Since genetic engineering of humanized murine monoclonal antibodies was first demonstrated over two decades ago, antibody engineering technologies have evolved based upon an increasing understanding of the mechanisms involved in antibody generation in vivo, and a constant search for alternative routes to evolve and exploit the characteristics of antibodies. As a result, antibody engineers have devised innovative strategies for the rapid evolution and selection of antibodies and novel antibody designs (i.e., antibody fragments). Phage display, cell display and ribosome display technologies, which comprise the core of the currently available technologies for the discovery and preparation of such antibodies, are reviewed herein. This article intends to communicate the state-of-the-art technology available for the engineering of antibodies to a general readership interested in this important field. Therefore, important immunology concepts are introduced before detailed descriptions of the three antibody engineering technologies are presented in later sections. A comparison of these methodologies suggests that despite the predominance of phage display for the engineering of antibody fragments in the past 20 years, cell display and ribosome display will likely gain importance in the selection and discovery of the antibody fragments in the future. Finally, these technologies are likely to play an important role in the production of the next generation of antibody-based therapeutics.

Las tecnologías para la ingeniería de anticuerpos han evolucionado durante las últimas dos décadas, desde la demostración de la posibilidad de humanizar anticuerpos monoclonales de ratón mediante ingeniería genética, apoyadas en el creciente entendimiento de los mecanismos involucrados en la generación de anticuerpos in vivo, y en una búsqueda constante de rutas alternativas para evolucionar y explotar sus características. Es así como los ingenieros de anticuerpos han desarrollado estrategias innovadoras para la evolución y selección de anticuerpos y de novedosos diseños de anticuerpos conocidos como fragmentos de anticuerpos. Esta revisión se enfoca en tres tecnologías que comprenden el núcleo de las tecnologías actualmente disponibles para el descubrimiento y preparación de tales anticuerpos: la presentación en fagos, la presentación en células, y la presentación en ribosomas. Este artículo busca presentar el estado del arte de estas tecnologías a un grupo general de lectores interesados en este campo, por lo que inicialmente se introducen importantes conceptos de inmunología requeridos para comprender en detalle las tecnologías discutidas. Una comparación de estas metodologías para la ingeniería de anticuerpos sugiere que a pesar del dominio de las tecnologías basadas en la presentación en fagos durante los últimos 20 años, en los próximos años la presentación en células y la presentación en ribosomas probablemente ganarán importancia para la selección y descubrimiento de fragmentos de anticuerpos. Finalmente, es probable que estas tecnologías jueguen un papel importante en la producción de la siguiente generación de terapéuticos basados en anticuerpos.

Expression of anti-Z-DNA single chain antibody variable fragment on the filamentous phage surface

We describe the expression of an anti-Z-DNA single chain variable region antibody fragment (scFv) on a filamentous phage surface. Four vectors for phage display were constructed. Two of them are able to display multiple copies of the antibody fragment, and the others can be used to make monovalent libraries. The vectors use different promoter/leader sequences to direct the expression of the fused proteins. All were able to promote the assembly of fusion virion particles. In this paper we also show the affinity selection (biopanning) of those phage-antibodies based on the capacity of their products to recognize the antigen. We used biotinylated Z-DNA and the selection was performed in a solution phase fashion. The data presented here indicate that these vectors can be further used to construct anti-nucleic acid antibody fragment libraries that can be used to study the basis of nucleic acid-protein interaction and its role in autoimmunity mechanisms.