Production of a single-chain fragment of the murine anti-idiotypic antibody ACA125 as phage-displayed and soluble antibody by recombinant phage antibody technique.

The F(ab')2 fragment of the murine monoclonal anti-idiotypic antibody ACA125 mimicking the tumor-associated antigen CA125 is used as a vaccine for the induction of an anti-tumoral immunity in patients with ovarian carcinoma. We tried to generate a single-chain fragment (ScFv) composed of ACA125 heavy- and light-chain variable domains connected by a polypeptide linker as an alternative to the corresponding F(ab')2 fragment. Heavy- and light-chain genes of antibody-producing mouse hybridoma cell line were amplified separately and assembled into a ScFv gene with linker DNA by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The ScFv gene was ligated into the phagemid vector pCANTAB5E, which allows the production of both phage-displayed and soluble ScFv. Transformed Escherichia coli TG1 cells were infected with M13K07 helper phage to yield recombinant phage, which display ScFv fragments as a g3p fusion protein on the surface of the filamentous phage M13. Recombinant phages could be selected by binding to the idiotypic antibody OC125 after one round of panning and directly used to reinfect E. coli TG1 cells. The E. coli nonsuppressor strain HB2151 was infected with an antigen-positive phage clone, previously screened by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), to express soluble ScFv fragments. Functional soluble ScFv binding to the idiotypic antibody OC125 F(ab')2 could be detected in the bacterial periplasm by Western blot and ELISA. The variable heavy- and light-chain genes of the ACA125 ScFv fragment were further sequenced and compared with known antibody sequences.