The N-linked oligosaccharide at Fc gamma RIIIa Asn-45: an inhibitory element for high Fc gamma RIIIa binding affinity to IgG glycoforms lacking core fucosylation.

Human leukocyte receptor IIIa (Fc gamma RIIIa) plays an important role in mediating therapeutic antibodies' antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), which is closely related to the clinical efficacy of anticancer processes in humans in vivo. The removal of the core fucose from oligosaccharides attached to the Fc region of antibodies improves Fc gamma RIIIa binding, allowing the antibodies to enhance dramatically the antibody effector functions of ADCC. In this study, the contribution of Fc gamma RIIIa oligosaccharides to the strength of the Fc gamma RIIIa/antibody complex was analyzed using a serial set of soluble human recombinant Fc gamma RIIIa lacking the oligosaccharides. A nonfucosylated antibody IgG1 appeared to have a significantly higher affinity to the wild-type Fc gamma RIIIa fully glycosylated at its five N-linked oligosaccharide sites than did the fucosylated IgG1, and this increased binding was almost abolished once all of the Fc gamma RIIIa glycosylation was removed. Our gain-of-function analysis in the Fc gamma RIIIa oligosaccharide at Asn-162 (N-162) confirmed that N-162 is the element required for the high binding affinity to nonfucosylated antibodies, as previously revealed by loss-of-function analyses. Interestingly, beyond our expectation, the Fc gamma RIIIa modified by N-162 alone showed a significantly higher binding affinity to nonfucosylated IgG1 than did the wild-type Fc gamma RIIIa. Attachment of the other four oligosaccharides, especially the Fc gamma RIIIa oligosaccharide at Asn-45 (N-45), hindered the high binding affinity of Fc gamma RIIIa to nonfucosylated IgG1. Our data clearly demonstrated that N-45 is an inhibitory element for the high Fc gamma RIIIa binding affinity mediated by N-162 to nonfucosylated antibodies. This information can be exploited for the structural-based functional study of Fc gamma RIIIa.

Establishment of a GDP-mannose 4,6-dehydratase (GMD) knockout host cell line: a new strategy for generating completely non-fucosylated recombinant therapeutics.

Currently, removal of core fucose from the Fc oligosaccharides of therapeutic antibodies is widely recognized as being of great importance for the effector function of antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, and alpha-1,6-fucosyltransferase (FUT8) knockout cells have been generated as an ideal host cell line for manufacturing such therapeutics. Here, we attempted to identify genes other than FUT8 that could be targeted for the manufacture of non-fucosylated therapeutics. Loss-of-function analyses using siRNAs against three key genes involved in oligosaccharide fucosylation in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells revealed that there was a positive correlation between the Fc oligosaccharide fucosylation and the mRNA expression through the origin in the cases of both GDP-fucose 4,6-dehydratase (GMD) and FUT8, but not for the GDP-fucose transporter, suggesting that there is no functional redundancy in GMD and FUT8. GMD knockout CHO/DG44 cells were successfully established, and were confirmed to be devoid of intracellular GDP-fucose and to produce completely non-fucosylated antibodies. GMD knockout cells recovered their fucosylation capability through the salvage pathway upon addition of l-fucose into the culture medium, and exhibited equable morphology, growth kinetics and recombinant protein productivity, demonstrating that loss of oligosaccharide fucosylation has no impact on these cellular phenotypes. Our results demonstrate that GMD knockout is a new strategy applicable to the manufacture of non-fucosylated therapeutic antibodies, and completely O-fucose-negative therapeutics as well.

Comparison of biological activity among nonfucosylated therapeutic IgG1 antibodies with three different N-linked Fc oligosaccharides: the high-mannose, hybrid, and complex types.

The structure of asparagine-linked oligosaccharides attached to the antibody constant region (Fc) of human immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) has been shown to affect the pharmacokinetics and antibody effector functions of antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC). However, it is still unclear how differences in the N-linked oligosaccharide structures impact the biological activities of antibodies, especially those lacking core fucose. Here, we succeeded in generating core fucose-lacking human IgG1 antibodies with three different N-linked Fc oligosaccharides, namely, a high-mannose, hybrid, and complex type, using the same producing clone, and compared their activities. Cultivation of an alpha-1,6-fucosyltransferase (FUT8) knockout Chinese hamster ovary cell line in the presence or absence of a glycosidase inhibitor (either swainsonine or kifunensine) yielded antibody production of each of the three types without contamination by the others. Two of three types of nonnaturally occurring atypical oligosaccharide IgG1, except the complex type, reduced the affinity for both human lymphocyte receptor IIIa (FcgammaRIIIa) and the C1q component of the complement, resulting in reduction of ADCC and CDC. The bulky structure of the nonreducing end of N-linked Fc oligosaccharides is considered to contribute the CDC change, whereas the structural change in the reducing end, i.e. the removal of core fucose, causes ADCC enhancement through improved FcgammaRIIIa binding. In the pharmacokinetic profile, although no significant difference of human neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn)-binding affinity was observed among the three types, the complex type showed longer serum half-lives than the other types irrespective of core fucosylation in mice, which also suggests the contribution of the nonreducing end structure. The present study provides basic information on the effects of core fucose-lacking N-linked Fc oligosaccharides on antibody biological activities.