Wakankar Aditya A, Borchardt Ronald T, Eigenbrot Charles, Shia Steven, Wang Y John, Shire Steve J, Liu Jun L
Late Stage Pharmaceutical and Device Development Group, Genentech Inc., 1 DNA Way, South San Francisco, California 94080, USA.
Biochemistry. 2007 Feb 13;46(6):1534-44. doi: 10.1021/bi061500t. Epub 2007 Jan 17.
The aspartic acid residues (Asp) present in the complementarity-determining regions (CDRs) of the light chains of two recombinant monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), MAb I and MAb II, are highly susceptible to isomerization due to the presence of glycine residues (Gly) on their C-terminal ends. Asp isomerization in these MAbs leads to formation of the isoaspartate (IsoAsp) and the cyclic imide (Asu) variants of these MAbs. Both MAb I and MAb II, employed in this study, elicit their pharmacological responses through binding human IgE. The formation of the MAb variants as a result of Asp isomerization significantly reduces the binding affinities of these antibodies to IgE, thereby reducing their potencies. Here we report on significant differences in the susceptibility of the MAb I and the MAb II to Asp isomerization. The molecular basis for these differences in rates of Asp isomerization was elucidated. The effect of primary sequence on Asp isomerization was evaluated using pentapeptide models of the MAbs, which included the labile Asp residues and their neighboring amino acid residues. The separation of the parent MAbs and pentapeptides from their isomerization products was achieved using hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC) and rp-HPLC, respectively. Structural characterization of the MAbs was performed using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), circular dichroism (CD), and X-ray crystallography. Our investigations demonstrate that the differences in the Asp isomerization rates between MAb I and MAb II can be attributed to structural factors including the conformational flexibility and the extent of solvent exposure of the labile Asp residue.
两种重组单克隆抗体(MAb),即MAb I和MAb II,轻链互补决定区(CDR)中的天冬氨酸残基(Asp)因其C末端存在甘氨酸残基(Gly)而极易发生异构化。这些单克隆抗体中的天冬氨酸异构化会导致这些单克隆抗体形成异天冬氨酸(IsoAsp)和环酰亚胺(Asu)变体。本研究中使用的MAb I和MAb II均通过与人IgE结合引发其药理反应。天冬氨酸异构化导致的单克隆抗体变体的形成显著降低了这些抗体与IgE的结合亲和力,从而降低了它们的效力。在此,我们报告了MAb I和MAb II对天冬氨酸异构化敏感性的显著差异。阐明了天冬氨酸异构化速率差异的分子基础。使用单克隆抗体的五肽模型评估一级序列对天冬氨酸异构化的影响,该模型包括不稳定的天冬氨酸残基及其相邻氨基酸残基。分别使用疏水相互作用色谱(HIC)和反相高效液相色谱(rp-HPLC)从其异构化产物中分离出亲本单克隆抗体和五肽。使用差示扫描量热法(DSC)、圆二色性(CD)和X射线晶体学对单克隆抗体进行结构表征。我们的研究表明,MAb I和MAb II之间天冬氨酸异构化速率的差异可归因于结构因素,包括不稳定天冬氨酸残基的构象灵活性和溶剂暴露程度。