Human antibodies and hybridomas最新文献

We have generated a human monoclonal antibody with binding specificity for hepatitis C virus (HCV)-specific peptides using peripheral blood lymphocytes isolated from a HCV antibody positive patient. The B-lymphocytes were stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for 72 hours prior to the fusion. A recently described high efficiency hypo-osmolar electrofusion technique was employed, allowing generation of a large number of human hybridomas. The hybridomas were screened for human immunoglobulin and HCV-specific peptide binding by EIA. A single HCV-positive clone, JRA1, was detected and sub-cloned. Isotype analysis showed it to secrete an IgM lambda monoclonal antibody. The antibody was positive on both first and second generation HCV antibody analysis. This study confirms that viable pathogen-specific B-cells may be recovered from the peripheral blood. Although such cells are likely to be relatively uncommon in the circulating B-cell pool, they may be successfully immortalized by high efficiency electrofusion techniques. This technique might be valuable for the generation of human monoclonal antibodies with specificity for other human pathogens.

Recombinant DNA techniques were used to clone, to construct and to express a fusion protein M4/TNF in Escherichia coli. The fusion protein includes the chimeric F(ab')2 fragment (M4) recognizing the human tumor-associated TAG72 antigen and the tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF) moiety. The M4/TNF purified from inclusion bodies of the bacteria homogenates was further solubilized in a denaturing buffer containing 6 mol l-1 guanidine and refolded in a refolding buffer. Our results showed that the M4/TNF refolded in a buffer containing 6 mmol l-1 oxidized glutathione (GSSG), 0.2 mmol l-1 dithioerythione (DTE) and 0.5 mumol l-1 protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) displayed a 4-fold higher anti-TAG72 immunoreactivity and a 5-fold higher TNF activity than that refolded in the same refolding buffer but without PDI. Our data thus indicates that the protein disulfide isomerase not only facilitates the correct formation of disulfide-bonds of the antibody molecule, but also the correct refolding of the TNF moiety in vitro.

Murine monoclonal antibodies were raised against 14-3-3 proteins, the antigen of human monoclonal antibody AE6F4 which had been shown potentially useful for the immunochemical diagnosis of lung cancer via sputum cytology. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays of the murine anti-14-3-3 monoclonal antibodies with isolated bovine brain 14-3-3 isoforms showed that the antibodies were classified into four different profiles of isoform reactivity. The comparison of 14-3-3 isoform and lung cancer tissue on the reactivity with murine monoclonal antibodies indicated that beta isoform can be responsible for cancer recognition, whereas human monoclonal antibody AE6F4 showed preferential binding to zeta isoform. No murine monoclonal antibody of the same isoform specificity as human monoclonal antibody AE6F4 was obtained. Since murine monoclonal antibodies with different isoform specificities could immunostain lung cancer cells in sputum successfully, the combination use of murine monoclonal anti-14-3-3 antibodies with human monoclonal antibody AE6F4 is potentially useful for facilitating the sputum cytodiagnosis of lung cancer.

A human monoclonal antibody, CB STL-1, against staphylococcal alpha-toxin has been established by hybridoma technology. It is of IgG1 subclass with lambda light chain and possesses a dissociation constant of 8 x 10(-10) mol/l. 1 mg of purified antibody neutralizes the hemolytic activity of 800 micrograms/ml alpha-toxin in an in vitro hemolysis assay using rabbit erythrocytes. The antibody does not bind to overlapping (7 residues) decapeptides spanning the sequence of alpha toxin, thus it might bind to a conformational epitope. The epitope recognized by the antibody is not accessible in oligomeric toxin. The antibody binds both to the hydrophilic and amphipathic forms of the monomeric toxin Fab fragments of the antibody are stable and show no significant loss of activity. CB STL-1 was able to protect mice in vivo from i.p. challenge with alpha toxin. Thus, the antibody is a candidate for passive immunotherapy. The variable regions of the antibody secreted by CB STL-1 were sequenced and found to be encoded by a VH gene segment belonging to the VH1 family, and a Vlambda segment most likely belonging to the VlambdaIII subgroup. Further analysis concerning the third complementarity determining region (CDR3) of the heavy chain is presented.