title: Neutralizing human anti crotoxin scFv isolated from a nonimmunized phage library.
abstract: Combinatorial phage display technology offers a new possibility for making human antibodies which could be used in immune therapy. We explored the use of this technology to make human scFvs specific for crotoxin, the main toxic component of the venom of the South-American rattlesnake Crotalus durissus terrificus. Crotoxin, a phospholipase A2 neurotoxin constituted by the association of two subunits, exerts its lethal action by blocking neuromuscular transmission. This is the first report of human anticrotoxin scFvs (scFv 1, scFv 6 and scFv 8) isolated from a naive library of more than 1010 scFv clones with in vivo neutralizing activity. Nevertheless, differences are observed at the level of biological and immunological effects. Only scFv 8 is able to reduce the myotoxicity induced by crotoxin and scFv 1 is capable of altering the in vitro enzymatic activity of this toxin. All three scFvs recognize a region of one subunit located at the junction with the other one. Moreover these scFvs share strong amino acid homologies at the level of either the heavy or the light chain. Taken together, our results suggest that the use of human anticrotoxin scFvs may lead to a new and less aggressive passive immune therapy against poisoning by the venom of Crotalus durissus terrificus.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Immunopatologia, Instituto Butantan, Sao-Paulo, Brasil; Laboratoire d'Ingénierie des Anticorps; Unité de Biochimie cellulaire, Institut Pasteur, France.
authors.forename: D F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Cardoso
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nato
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: England
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Vaughan
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mota
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Mazie
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Choumet
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lafaye
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000915:Antibody Affinity; D000918:Antibody Specificity / Q000276:immunology; D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D001666:Binding Sites, Antibody; D003402:Creatine Kinase / Q000097:blood; D003439:Crotoxin / Q000276:immunology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D018604:Epitope Mapping; D005803:Genes, Immunoglobulin; D006801:Humans; D007128:Immunoglobulin Fragments / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D007135:Immunoglobulin Variable Region / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009500:Neutralization Tests; D019151:Peptide Library; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D007128:Immunoglobulin Fragments; D007135:Immunoglobulin Variable Region; D019151:Peptide Library; D003439:Crotoxin; D003402:Creatine Kinase