title: Recombinant chimeric OKT3 scFv IgM antibodies mediate immune suppression while reducing T cell activation in vitro.
abstract: OKT3, a mouse anti-human CD3 monoclonal antibody (mAb), is a potent immunosuppressive agent used in clinical transplantation to treat allograft rejection. Two major drawbacks of this therapy are the systemic release of several cytokines due to cross-linking mediated by the mAb between T cells and FcgammaR-bearing cells and the human anti-mouse antibody (HAMA) response. To overcome these side effects, three chimeric OKT3 single chain variable fragment (scFv) IgM antibodies, scOKT3-gamma DeltaIgM wt, scOKT3-gamma DeltaIgM C575S and scOKT3-gamma DeltaIgM VAEVD, were generated. They consist of the light and heavy variable binding domains of OKT3 mAb as well as the CH3 and CH4 domains of different human IgM variants linked with a human IgG3 hinge region to provide more flexibility and stability. Like the native IgM, scOKT3-gamma DeltaIgM antibodies are able to form polymeric structures, which lead to an increase in binding affinity and immunosuppressive potential compared with the parental OKT3 mAb. However, independently of their polymerization, all scOKT3-gamma DeltaIgM constructs do not induce any significant T cell proliferation or cytokine release (IL-2, TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma) in in vitro assays, while their CD3-modulating properties are retained. These results suggest that the use of scOKT3-gamma DeltaIgM antibodies may offer significant advantages over the OKT3 mAb in improving clinical immunosuppressive treatment.
authors.affiliation: Recombinant Antibody Research Group (D0500), German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: De Ines
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kürschner
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cochlovius
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sörensen
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Olafsen
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sandlie
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Little
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002460:Cell Line; D003167:Complement Activation / Q000187:drug effects; D015922:Complement C1q / Q000378:metabolism; D004355:Drug Stability; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007128:Immunoglobulin Fragments / Q000276:immunology / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000276:immunology / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000187:drug effects*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016853:Muromonab-CD3 / Q000276:immunology / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D007128:Immunoglobulin Fragments; D007075:Immunoglobulin M; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents; D016853:Muromonab-CD3; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; C055966:immunoglobulin Fv; D015922:Complement C1q