Mark William Bodmer

Molecular cloning of a human gastric lipase and expression of the enzyme in yeast

The molecular cloning of a cDNA coding for human gastric lipase and its expression in yeast is described. A lipase present in human gastric aspirates was purified and its N-terminal amino-acid sequence was determined. This was found to be homologous with the N-terminal sequence of rat lingual lipase. A cDNA library was constructed from mRNA isolated from human stomach tissue and probed with cloned rat lingual lipase DNA. One clone, pGL17, consisting of approximately 1450 base-pairs, contained the entire coding sequence for a human gastric lipase. The amino-acid sequence from the isolated protein and the DNA sequence obtained from the cloned gene indicated that human gastric lipase consists of a 379 amino acid polypeptide with an unglycosylated Mr of 43,162. Human gastric lipase and rat lingual lipase amino-acid sequences were closely homologous but were unrelated to porcine pancreatic lipase apart from a 6 amino-acid sequence around the essential Ser-152 of porcine pancreatic lipase. A yeast expression plasmid containing the phosphoglycerate kinase promoter and terminator sequences together with the human gastric lipase gene was constructed. Yeast transformed with this vector synthesised the lipolytically active enzyme.

Humanization of the murine anti-human CD3 monoclonal antibody OKT3

OKT3 is a murine monoclonal antibody which recognizes an epitope on the epsilon-subunit within the human CD3 complex. OKT3 possesses potent immunosuppressive properties in vivo and has been proven effective in the treatment of renal, heart and liver allograft rejection. Despite its efficacy, significant problems remain associated with OKT3 therapy, i.e. T-cell activation and the anti-murine antibody response. To address the problem of the anti-murine antibody response we have constructed humanized versions of OKT3. One of the humanized derivatives, gOKT3-7 incorporating the OKT3 complementarity determining regions plus a small number of alterations to the human framework, has an affinity of 1.4 x 10(9) M-1 compared with 1.2 x 10(9) M-1 for the murine OKT3. A humanized antibody (gOKT3-1) incorporating only the CDRs from OKT3 was found to be functionally inactive, confirming the requirement for nonCDR substitutions. gOKT3-7 retains the ability of mOKT3 to induce T cell proliferation in vitro and appears to be a good candidate for further development for in vivo therapy.