Affinity maturation of leukemia inhibitory factor and conversion to potent antagonists of signaling.
Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF)-induced cell signaling occurs following sequential binding to the LIF receptor alpha-chain (LIFR), then to the gp130 co-receptor used by all members of the interleukin-6 family of cytokines. By monovalently displaying human LIF on the surface of M13 phage and randomizing clusters of residues in regions predicted to be important for human LIFR binding, we have identified mutations, which lead to significant increases in affinity for binding to LIFR. Six libraries were constructed in which regions of 4-6 amino acids were randomized then panned against LIFR. Mutations identified in three distinct clusters, residues 53-57, 102-103, and 150-155, gave rise to proteins with significantly increased affinity for binding to both human and mouse LIFR. Combining the mutations for each of these regions further increased the affinity, such that the best mutants bound to human LIFR with >1000-fold higher affinity than wild-type human LIF. NMR analysis indicated that the mutations did not alter the overall structure of the molecule relative to the native protein, although some local changes occurred in the vicinity of the substituted residues. Despite increases in LIFR binding affinity, these mutants did not show any increase in activity as agonists of LIF-induced proliferation of Ba/F3 cells expressing human LIFR and gp130 compared with wild-type LIF. Incorporation of two additional mutations (Q29A and G124R), which were found to abrogate cell signaling, led to the generation of highly potent antagonists of both human and murine LIF-induced bioactivity.
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, 1G Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria 3050, Australia.
W Douglas
WD
Fairlie
Alessandro D
AD
Uboldi
Joanne E
JE
McCoubrie
Chunxiao C
CC
Wang
Erinna F
EF
Lee
Shenggen
S
Yao
David P
DP
De Souza
Sandra
S
Mifsud
Donald
D
Metcalf
Nicos A
NA
Nicola
Raymond S
RS
Norton
Manuel
M
Baca
D000818:Animals; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000378:metabolism; D001665:Binding Sites; D050822:Cytokine Receptor gp130; D006801:Humans; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology; D053605:Leukemia Inhibitory Factor; D053680:Leukemia Inhibitory Factor Receptor alpha Subunit; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D009154:Mutation; D019906:Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular; D019151:Peptide Library; D018121:Receptors, Cytokine / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D053606:Receptors, OSM-LIF; D015398:Signal Transduction
D015703:Antigens, CD; C494199:IL6ST protein, human; C494200:Il6st protein, mouse; D015850:Interleukin-6; C507837:LIF protein, human; C507840:LIFR protein, human; D053605:Leukemia Inhibitory Factor; D053680:Leukemia Inhibitory Factor Receptor alpha Subunit; C507838:Lif protein, mouse; C507841:Lifr protein, mouse; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D019151:Peptide Library; D018121:Receptors, Cytokine; D053606:Receptors, OSM-LIF; D050822:Cytokine Receptor gp130