Stefan Zielonka

Therapeutic antibody engineering by high efficiency cell screening

In recent years, several cell‐based screening technologies for the isolation of antibodies with prescribed properties emerged. They rely on the multi‐copy display of antibodies or antibody fragments on a cell surface in functional form followed by high through put screening and isolation of cell clones that carry an antibody variant with the desired affinity, specificity, and stability. Particularly yeast surface display in combination with high‐throughput fluorescence‐activated cell sorting has proven successful in the last fifteen years as a very powerful technology that has some advantages over classical generation of monoclonals using the hybridoma technology or bacteriophage‐based antibody display and screening. Cell‐based screening harbours the benefit of single‐cell online and real‐time analysis and characterisation of individual library candidates. Moreover, when using eukaryotic expression hosts, intrinsic quality control machineries for proper protein folding and stability exist that allow for co‐selection of high‐level expression and stability simultaneously to the binding functionality. Recently, promising technologies emerged that directly rely on antibody display on higher eukaryotic cell lines using lentiviral transfection or direct screening on B‐cells. The combination of immunisation, B‐cell screening and next generation sequencing may open new avenues for the isolation of therapeutic antibodies with prescribed physicochemical and functional characteristics.

Structural insights and biomedical potential of IgNAR scaffolds from sharks

In addition to antibodies with the classical composition of heavy and light chains, the adaptive immune repertoire of sharks also includes a heavy-chain only isotype, where antigen binding is mediated exclusively by a small and highly stable domain, referred to as vNAR. In recent years, due to their high affinity and specificity combined with their small size, high physicochemical stability and low-cost of production, vNAR fragments have evolved as promising target-binding scaffolds that can be tailor-made for applications in medicine and biotechnology. This review highlights the structural features of vNAR molecules, addresses aspects of their generation using immunization or in vitro high throughput screening methods and provides examples of therapeutic, diagnostic and other biotechnological applications.

A Chemoenzymatic Approach to Protein Immobilization onto Crystalline Cellulose Nanoscaffolds

The immobilization of bioactive molecules onto nanocellulose leads to constructs that combine the properties of the grafted compounds with the biocompatibility and low cytotoxicity of cellulose carriers and the advantages given by their nanometer dimensions. However, the methods commonly used for protein grafting suffer from lack of selectivity, long reaction times, nonphysiological pH ranges and solvents, and the necessity to develop a tailor-made reaction strategy for each individual case. To overcome these restrictions, a generic two-step procedure was developed that takes advantage of the highly efficient oxime ligation combined with enzyme-mediated protein coupling onto the surface of peptide-modified crystalline nanocellulose. The described method is based on efficient and orthogonal transformations, requires no organic solvents, and takes place under physiological conditions. Being site-directed and regiospecific, it could be applied to a vast number of functional proteins.

Shark Attack: high affinity binding proteins derived from shark vNAR domains by stepwise in vitro affinity maturation.

A novel method for stepwise in vitro affinity maturation of antigen-specific shark vNAR domains is described that exclusively relies on semi-synthetic repertoires derived from non-immunized sharks. Target-specific molecules were selected from a CDR3-randomized bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium plagiosum) vNAR library using yeast surface display as platform technology. Various antigen-binding vNAR domains were easily isolated by screening against several therapeutically relevant antigens, including the epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM), the Ephrin type-A receptor 2 (EphA2), and the human serine protease HTRA1. Affinity maturation was demonstrated for EpCAM and HTRA1 by diversifying CDR1 of target-enriched populations which allowed for the rapid selection of nanomolar binders. EpCAM-specific vNAR molecules were produced as soluble proteins and more extensively characterized via thermal shift assays and biolayer interferometry. Essentially, we demonstrate that high-affinity binders can be generated in vitro without largely compromising the desirable high thermostability of the vNAR scaffold.

Single-domain antibodies for biomedical applications

Abstract Single-domain antibodies are the smallest antigen-binding units of antibodies, consisting either only of one variable domain or one engineered constant domain that solely facilitates target binding. This class of antibody derivatives comprises naturally occurring variable domains derived from camelids and sharks as well as engineered human variable or constant antibody domains of the heavy or light chain. Because of their high affinity and specificity as well as stability, small size and benefit of multiple re-formatting opportunities, those molecules emerged as promising candidates for biomedical applications and some of these entities have already proven to be successful in clinical development.

The Shark Strikes Twice: Hypervariable Loop 2 of Shark IgNAR Antibody Variable Domains and Its Potential to Function as an Autonomous Paratope.

In this present study, we engineered hypervariable loop 2 (HV2) of the IgNAR variable domain in a way that it solely facilitates antigen binding, potentially functioning as an autonomous paratope. For this, the surface-exposed loop corresponding to HV2 was diversified and antigen-specific variable domain of IgNAR antibody (vNAR) molecules were isolated by library screening using yeast surface display (YSD) as platform technology. An epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM)-specific vNAR was used as starting material, and nine residues in HV2 were randomized. Target-specific clones comprising a new HV2-mediated paratope were isolated against cluster of differentiation 3ε (CD3ε) and human Fcγ while retaining high affinity for EpCAM. Essentially, we demonstrate that a new paratope comprising moderate affinities against a given target molecule can be engineered into the vNAR scaffold that acts independent of the original antigen-binding site, composed of complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) and CDR1.

Engineering bispecific antibodies with defined chain pairing

Bispecific IgG-like antibodies can simultaneously interact with two epitopes on the same or on different antigens. Therefore, these molecules facilitate novel modes of action, which cannot be addressed by conventional monospecific IgGs. However, the generation of such antibodies still appears to be demanding due to their specific architecture comprising four different polypeptide chains that need to assemble correctly. This review focusses on different strategies to circumvent this issue or to enforce a correct chain association with a focus on common-chain bispecific antibodies.

Semi-synthetic vNAR libraries screened against therapeutic antibodies primarily deliver anti-idiotypic binders

Anti-idiotypic binders which specifically recognize the variable region of monoclonal antibodies have proven to be robust tools for pharmacokinetic studies of antibody therapeutics and for the development of cancer vaccines. In the present investigation, we focused on the identification of anti-idiotypic, shark-derived IgNAR antibody variable domains (vNARs) targeting the therapeutic antibodies matuzumab and cetuximab for the purpose of developing specific capturing ligands. Using yeast surface display and semi-synthetic, CDR3-randomized libraries, we identified several highly specific binders targeting both therapeutic antibodies in their corresponding variable region, without applying any counter selections during screening. Importantly, anti-idiotypic vNAR binders were not cross-reactive towards cetuximab or matuzumab, respectively, and comprised good target recognition in the presence of human and mouse serum. When coupled to magnetic beads, anti-idiotypic vNAR variants could be used as efficient capturing tools. Moreover, a two-step procedure involving vNAR-functionalized beads was employed for the enrichment of potentially bispecific cetuximab × matuzumab antibody constructs. In conclusion, semi-synthetic and CDR3-randomized vNAR libraries in combination with yeast display enable the fast and facile identification of anti-idiotypic vNAR domains targeting monoclonal antibodies primarily in an anti-idiotypic manner.

Hydrolysis of Fatty Acid Esters by Candida Antarctica Lipase B (Novozym 435) Dissolved in Anhydrous Triethylamine

Enzyme‐catalyzed stereoselective esterification of OH groups in non‐aqueous media has been widely used for kinetic racemate resolution. However, rapid hydrolysis of the ester group was observed as a competing reaction if we attempted to resolve 3‐hydroxy octanoic acid methyl ester with Novozym 435 in a non‐aqueous medium with a catalytic amount of the base triethylamine. This hydrolysis away from the stereogenic carbon atom showed stereoselectivity, thus the preparative value of this reaction was inspected closer and it could be extended to higher homologues. 3‐Hydroxy decanoic acid methyl ester, 3‐hydroxy dodecanoic acid methyl ester and 3‐hydroxy tetradecanoic acid methyl ester were also hydrolyzed by Novozym 435 with enhanced reaction rates and moderate selectivities if dissolved in triethylamine. Ethyl mandelate and ethyl lactate were also converted under these conditions. The same phenomenon could also be observed with a 2 % DABCO solution in hexane, whereas secondary amines, for example piperidine, did not influence the reaction.

A simplified procedure for antibody engineering by yeast surface display: coupling display levels and target binding by ribosomal skipping

Yeast surface display is a valuable, widely used method for protein engineering. However, current yeast display applications rely on the staining of epitope tags in order to verify full-length presentation of the protein of interest on the cell surface. We aimed at developing a modified yeast display approach that relies on ribosomal skipping, thereby enabling the translation of two proteins from one open reading frame and, in that manner, generating an intracellular fluorescence signal. This improved setup is based on a 2A sequence that is encoded between the protein to be displayed and a gene for green fluorescent protein (GFP). The intracellular GFP fluorescence signal of yeast cells correlates with full-length protein presentation and omits the need for the immunofluorescence detection of epitope tags. For method validation, shark-derived IgNAR variable domains (vNAR) were subjected to affinity maturation using the 2A-GFP system. Yeast library screening of full-length vNAR variants which were detected via GFP expression yielded the same high-affinity binder that had previously been isolated by our group using the conventional epitope tag-based display format. The presented method obviates the need for additional immunofluorescence cell staining, offering an easy and cost-friendly alternative to conventional epitope tag detections.