Improving the solubility of anti-LINGO-1 monoclonal antibody Li33 by isotype switching and targeted mutagenesis.
Monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) are a favorite drug platform of the biopharmaceutical industry. Currently, over 20 Mabs have been approved and several hundred others are in clinical trials. The anti-LINGO-1 Mab Li33 was selected from a large panel of antibodies by Fab phage display technology based on its extraordinary biological activity in promoting oligodendrocyte differentiation and myelination in vitro and in animal models of remyelination. However, the Li33 Fab had poor solubility when converted into a full antibody in an immunoglobulin G1 framework. A detailed analysis of the biochemical and structural features of the antibody revealed several possible reasons for its propensity to aggregate. Here, we successfully applied three molecular approaches (isotype switching, targeted mutagenesis of complementarity determining region residues, and glycosylation site insertion mutagenesis) to address the solubility problem. Through these efforts we were able to improve the solubility of the Li33 Mab from 0.3 mg/mL to >50 mg/mL and reduce aggregation to an acceptable level. These strategies can be readily applied to other proteins with solubility issues.
Pepinsky
R Blake
RB
Department of Drug Discovery, Biogen Idec, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. blake.pepinsky@biogenidec.com
Silvian
Laura
L
Berkowitz
Steven A
SA
Farrington
Graham
G
Lugovskoy
Alexey
A
Walus
Lee
L
Eldredge
John
J
Capili
Allan
A
Mi
Sha
S
Graff
Christilyn
C
Garber
Ellen
E
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D019540:Area Under Curve; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D017578:Immunoglobulin Class Switching; D007140:Immunoglobulin Fab Fragments / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed / Q000379:methods*; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D011487:Protein Conformation; D015202:Protein Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D055550:Protein Stability; D012995:Solubility; D013696:Temperature
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D007140:Immunoglobulin Fab Fragments; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; C482293:LINGO1 protein, human; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins