Crystallization and preliminary crystallographic studies of the single-chain variable fragment of antibody chA21 in complex with an N-terminal fragment of ErbB2.

ErbB2 is a transmembrane tyrosine kinase, the overexpression of which causes abnormality and disorder in cell signalling and leads to cell transformation. Previously, an anti-ErbB2 single-chain chimeric antibody chA21 that specifically inhibits the growth of ErbB2-overexpressing cancer cells in vitro and in vivo was developed. Here, an antibody-antigen complex consisting of the single-chain variable fragment (scFv) of chA21 and an N-terminal fragment (residues 1-192, named EP I) of the ErbB2 extracellular domain was crystallized using the sitting-drop vapour-diffusion method. An X-ray diffraction data set was collected to 2.45 A resolution from a single flash-cooled crystal; the crystal belonged to space group P2(1)2(1)2(1).