David W. Colby

Flow-cytometric isolation of human antibodies from a nonimmune Saccharomyces cerevisiae surface display library

A nonimmune library of 109 human antibody scFv fragments has been cloned and expressed on the surface of yeast, and nanomolar-affinity scFvs routinely obtained by magnetic bead screening and flow-cytometric sorting. The yeast library can be amplified 1010-fold without measurable loss of clonal diversity, allowing its effectively indefinite expansion. The expression, stability, and antigen-binding properties of >50 isolated scFv clones were assessed directly on the yeast cell surface by immunofluorescent labeling and flow cytometry, obviating separate subcloning, expression, and purification steps and thereby expediting the isolation of novel affinity reagents. The ability to use multiplex library screening demonstrates the usefulness of this approach for high-throughput antibody isolation for proteomics applications.

Small-molecule aggregates inhibit amyloid polymerization

Many amyloid inhibitors resemble molecules that form chemical aggregates, which are known to inhibit many proteins. Eight known chemical aggregators inhibited amyloid formation of the yeast and mouse prion proteins Sup35 and recMoPrP in a manner characteristic of colloidal inhibition. Similarly, three known anti-amyloid molecules inhibited beta-lactamase in a detergent-dependent manner, which suggests that they too form colloidal aggregates. The colloids localized to preformed fibers and prevented new fiber formation in electron micrographs. They also blocked infection of yeast cells with Sup35 prions, which suggests that colloidal inhibition may be relevant in more biological milieus.

Design and construction of diverse mammalian prion strains

Prions are infectious proteins that encipher biological information within their conformations; variations in these conformations dictate different prion strains. Toward elucidating the molecular language of prion protein (PrP) conformations, we produced an array of recombinant PrP amyloids with varying conformational stabilities. In mice, the most stable amyloids produced the most stable prion strains that exhibited the longest incubation times, whereas more labile amyloids generated less stable strains and shorter incubation times. The direct relationship between stability and incubation time of prion strains suggests that labile prions are more fit, in that they accumulate more rapidly and thus kill the host faster. Although incubation times can be changed by altering the PrP expression level, PrP sequence, prion dose, or route of inoculation, we report here the ability to modify the incubation time predictably in mice by modulating the prion conformation.

Prion detection by an amyloid seeding assay

Polymerization of recombinant prion protein (recPrP), which was produced in bacteria, into amyloid fibers was accompanied by the acquisition of prion infectivity. We report here that partially purified preparations of prions seed the polymerization of recPrP into amyloid as detected by a fluorescence shift in the dye Thioflavin T. Our amyloid seeding assay (ASA) detected PrPSc, the sole component of the prion, in brain samples from humans with sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, as well as in rodents with experimental prion disease. The ASA detected a variety of prion strains passaged in both mice and hamsters. The sensitivity of the ASA varied with strain type; for hamster Sc237 prions, the limit of detection was ≈1 fg. Some prion strains consist largely of protease-sensitive PrPSc (sPrPSc), and these strains were readily detected by ASA. Our studies show that the ASA provides an alternative methodology for detecting both sPrPSc and protease-resistant PrPSc that does not rely on protease digestion or immunodetection.

Natural and synthetic prion structure from X-ray fiber diffraction

A conformational isoform of the mammalian prion protein (PrPSc) is the sole component of the infectious pathogen that causes the prion diseases. We have obtained X-ray fiber diffraction patterns from infectious prions that show cross-β diffraction: meridional intensity at 4.8 Å resolution, indicating the presence of β strands running approximately at right angles to the filament axis and characteristic of amyloid structure. Some of the patterns also indicated the presence of a repeating unit along the fiber axis, corresponding to four β-strands. We found that recombinant (rec) PrP amyloid differs substantially from highly infectious brain-derived prions, both in structure as demonstrated by the diffraction data, and in heterogeneity as shown by electron microscopy. In addition to the strong 4.8 Å meridional reflection, the recPrP amyloid diffraction is characterized by strong equatorial intensity at approximately 10.5 Å, absent from brain-derived prions, and indicating the presence of stacked β-sheets. Synthetic prions recovered from transgenic mice inoculated with recPrP amyloid displayed structural characteristics and homogeneity similar to those of naturally occurring prions. The relationship between the structural differences and prion infectivity is uncertain, but might be explained by any of several hypotheses: only a minority of recPrP amyloid possesses a replication-competent conformation, the majority of recPrP amyloid has to undergo a conformational maturation to acquire replication competency, or inhibitory forms of recPrP amyloid interfere with replication during the initial transmission.

Protease-sensitive synthetic prions.

Prions arise when the cellular prion protein (PrPC) undergoes a self-propagating conformational change; the resulting infectious conformer is designated PrPSc. Frequently, PrPSc is protease-resistant but protease-sensitive (s) prions have been isolated in humans and other animals. We report here that protease-sensitive, synthetic prions were generated in vitro during polymerization of recombinant (rec) PrP into amyloid fibers. In 22 independent experiments, recPrP amyloid preparations, but not recPrP monomers or oligomers, transmitted disease to transgenic mice (n = 164), denoted Tg9949 mice, that overexpress N-terminally truncated PrP. Tg9949 control mice (n = 174) did not spontaneously generate prions although they were prone to late-onset spontaneous neurological dysfunction. When synthetic prion isolates from infected Tg9949 mice were serially transmitted in the same line of mice, they exhibited sPrPSc and caused neurodegeneration. Interestingly, these protease-sensitive prions did not shorten the life span of Tg9949 mice despite causing extensive neurodegeneration. We inoculated three synthetic prion isolates into Tg4053 mice that overexpress full-length PrP; Tg4053 mice are not prone to developing spontaneous neurological dysfunction. The synthetic prion isolates caused disease in 600–750 days in Tg4053 mice, which exhibited sPrPSc. These novel synthetic prions demonstrate that conformational changes in wild-type PrP can produce mouse prions composed exclusively of sPrPSc.

Engineering antibody affinity by yeast surface display.

Publisher Summary This chapter elaborates the engineering antibody affinity by yeast surface display (YSD). YSD is a powerful tool for engineering the affinity, specificity, and stability of antibodies, as well as other proteins. The methods for displaying an antibody on yeast, creating mutant libraries and sorting libraries for improved clones are presented. YSD involves the expression of a protein of interest on the yeast cell wall, where it can interact with proteins and small molecules in solution. The protein is expressed as a fusion to the Aga2p mating agglutinin protein, which is in turn linked by two disulfide bonds to the Aga1p protein linked covalently to the cell wall. Labeling yeast that are displaying an antibody or antibody library with a fluorescent or biotinylated antigen allows quantification of binding affinity, and enables library sorting by fluorescence-activated cell sorting. A second fluorophore conjugated to an antibody is used to detect the epitope tag C-terminal to the scFv, which allows for the normalization of expression and eliminates nondisplaying yeast from quantification. It is found that a complete cycle of mutagenesis and screening, from wild-type clone to improved mutant clone requires conservatively approximately 3–6 weeks.

De novo generation of prion strains.

Prions are self-replicating proteins that can cause neurodegenerative disorders such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (also known as mad cow disease). Aberrant conformations of prion proteins accumulate in the central nervous system, causing spongiform changes in the brain and eventually death. Since the inception of the prion hypothesis — which states that misfolded proteins are the infectious agents that cause these diseases — researchers have sought to generate infectious proteins from defined components in the laboratory with varying degrees of success. Here, we discuss several recent studies that have produced an array of novel prion strains in vitro that exhibit increasingly high titres of infectivity. These advances promise unprecedented insight into the structure of prions and the mechanisms by which they originate and propagate.

Conformational Features of Tau Fibrils from Alzheimer’s Disease Brain Are Faithfully Propagated by Unmodified Recombinant Protein

Fibrils composed of tau protein are a pathological hallmark of several neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimers disease (AD). Here we show that when recombinant tau protein is seeded with paired helical filaments (PHFs) isolated from AD brain, the amyloid formed shares many of the structural features of AD PHFs. In contrast, tau amyloids formed with heparin as an inducing agent-a common biochemical model of tau misfolding-are structurally distinct from brain-derived PHFs. Using ultrastructural analysis by electron microscopy, circular dichroism, and chemical denaturation, we found that AD seeded recombinant tau fibrils were not significantly different than tau fibrils isolated from AD brain tissue. Tau fibrils produced by incubating recombinant tau with heparin had significantly narrower fibrils with a longer periodicity, higher chemical stability, and distinct secondary structure compared to AD PHFs. The addition of heparin to the reaction of recombinant tau and AD PHFs also corrupted the templating process, resulting in a mixture of fibril conformations. Our results suggest that AD-isolated PHFs act as a conformational template for the formation of recombinant tau fibrils. Therefore, the use of AD PHFs as seeds to stimulate recombinant tau amyloid formation produces synthetic tau fibers that closely resemble those associated with AD pathology and provides a biochemical model of tau misfolding that may be of improved utility for structural studies and drug screening. These results also demonstrate that post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation are not a prerequisite for the propagation of the tau fibril conformation found in AD.

Convergent Replication of Mouse Synthetic Prion Strains

Prion diseases are neurodegenerative disorders characterized by the aberrant folding of endogenous proteins into self-propagating pathogenic conformers. Prion disease can be initiated in animal models by inoculation with amyloid fibrils formed from bacterially derived recombinant prion protein. The synthetic prions that accumulated in infected organisms are structurally distinct from the amyloid preparations used to initiate their formation and change conformationally on repeated passage. To investigate the nature of synthetic prion transformation, we infected mice with a conformationally diverse set of amyloids and serially passaged the resulting prion strains. At each passage, we monitored changes in the biochemical and biological properties of the adapting strain. The physicochemical properties of each synthetic prion strain gradually changed on serial propagation until attaining a common adapted state with shared physicochemical characteristics. These results indicate that synthetic prions can assume multiple intermediate conformations before converging into one conformation optimized for in vivo propagation.