Previously we reported a broadly HIV-1 neutralizing mini-antibody (Fab 3674) of modest potency that was derived from a human non-immune phage library by panning against the chimeric gp41-derived construct NCCG-gp41. This construct presents the N-heptad repeat of the gp41 ectodomain as a stable, helical, disulfide-linked trimer that extends in helical phase from the six-helix bundle of gp41. In this paper, Fab 3674 was subjected to affinity maturation against the NCCG-gp41 antigen by targeted diversification of the CDR-H2 loop to generate a panel of Fabs with diverse neutralization activity. Three affinity-matured Fabs selected for further study, Fabs 8060, 8066 and 8068, showed significant increases in both potency and breadth of neutralization against HIV-1 pseudotyped with envelopes of primary isolates from the standard subtypes B and C HIV-1 reference panels. The parental Fab 3674 is 10-20 fold less potent in monovalent than bivalent format over the entire B and C panels of HIV-1 pseudotypes. Of note is that the improved neutralization activity of the affinity-matured Fabs relative to the parental Fab 3674 was, on average, significantly greater for the Fabs in monovalent than bivalent format. This suggests that the increased avidity of the Fabs for the target antigen in bivalent format can be partially offset by kinetic and/or steric advantages afforded by the smaller monovalent Fabs. Indeed, the best affinity-matured Fab (8066) in monovalent format (∼50 kDa) was comparable in HIV-1 neutralization potency to the parental Fab 3674 in bivalent format (∼120 kDa) across the subtypes B and C reference panels.
The rapidly increasing number of therapeutic antibodies in clinical development and on the market requires corresponding detection reagents for monitoring the concentration of these drugs in patient samples and as positive controls for measurement of anti-drug antibodies. Phage display of large recombinant antibody libraries has been shown to enable the rapid development of fully human anti-idiotypic antibodies binding specifically to antibody drugs, since the in vitro panning approach allows for incorporation of suitable blockers to drive selection toward the paratope of the drug. A typical bottleneck in antibody generation projects is ranking of the many candidates obtained after panning on the basis of antibody binding strength. Ideally, such method will work without prior labeling of antigens and with crude bacterial lysates. We developed an off-rate screening method of crude Escherichia coli lysates containing monovalent Fab fragments obtained after phage display of the HuCAL PLATINUM® antibody library. We used the antibody drugs trastuzumab and cetuximab as antigen examples. Using the Octet® RED384 label-free sensor instrument we show that antibody off rates can be reliably determined in crude bacterial lysates with high throughput. We also demonstrate that the method can be applied to screening for high-affinity antibodies typically obtained after affinity maturation.
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