| 1. |
- Ding, Mei, et al.
(författare)
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Secretome screening reveals immunomodulating functions of IFNα-7, PAP and GDF-7 on regulatory T-cells
- 2021
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Nature. - 2045-2322. ; , s. 16767-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are the key cells regulating peripheral autoreactive T lymphocytes. Tregs exert their function by suppressing effector T cells. Tregs have been shown to play essential roles in the control of a variety of physiological and pathological immune responses. However, Tregs are unstable and can lose the expression of FOXP3 and suppressive functions as a consequence of outer stimuli. Available literature suggests that secreted proteins regulate Treg functional states, such as differentiation, proliferation and suppressive function. Identification of secreted proteins that affect Treg cell function are highly interesting for both therapeutic and diagnostic purposes in either hyperactive or immunosuppressed populations. Here, we report a phenotypic screening of a human secretome library in human Treg cells utilising a high throughput flow cytometry technology. Screening a library of 575 secreted proteins allowed us to identify proteins stabilising or destabilising the Treg phenotype as suggested by changes in expression of Treg marker proteins FOXP3 and/or CTLA4. Four proteins including GDF-7, IL-10, PAP and IFNα-7 were identified as positive regulators that increased FOXP3 and/or CTLA4 expression. PAP is a phosphatase. A catalytic-dead version of the protein did not induce an increase in FOXP3 expression. Ten interferon proteins were identified as negative regulators that reduced the expression of both CTLA4 and FOXP3, without affecting cell viability. A transcriptomics analysis supported the differential effect on Tregs of IFNα-7 versus other IFNα proteins, indicating differences in JAK/STAT signaling. A conformational model experiment confirmed a tenfold reduction in IFNAR-mediated ISG transcription for IFNα-7 compared to IFNα-10. This further strengthened the theory of a shift in downstream messaging upon external stimulation. As a summary, we have identified four positive regulators of FOXP3 and/or CTLA4 expression. Further exploration of these Treg modulators and their method of action has the potential to aid the discovery of novel therapies for both autoimmune and infectious diseases as well as for cancer.
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| 2. |
- Nilvebrant, Johan, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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An introduction to epitope mapping
- 2018
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Ingår i: Methods in Molecular Biology. - New York, NY : Humana Press. - 1064-3745 .- 1940-6029. ; 1785, s. 1-10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Antibodies are protein molecules used routinely for therapeutic, diagnostic, and research purposes due to their exquisite ability to selectively recognize and bind a given antigen. The particular area of the antigen recognized by the antibody is called the epitope, and for proteinaceous antigens the epitope can be of complex nature. Information about the binding epitope of an antibody can provide important mechanistic insights and indicate for what applications an antibody might be useful. Therefore, a variety of epitope mapping techniques have been developed to localize such regions. Although the real picture is even more complex, epitopes in protein antigens are broadly grouped into linear or discontinuous epitopes depending on the positioning of the epitope residues in the antigen sequence and the requirement of structure. Specialized methods for mapping of the two different classes of epitopes, using high-throughput or high-resolution methods, have been developed. While different in their detail, all of the experimental methods rely on assessing the binding of the antibody to the antigen or a set of antigen mimics. Early approaches utilizing sets of truncated proteins, small numbers of synthesized peptides, and structural analyses of antibody-antigen complexes have been significantly refined. Current state-of-the-art methods involve combinations of mutational scanning, protein display, and high-throughput screening in conjunction with bioinformatic analyses of large datasets.
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| 3. |
- Rockberg, Johan, et al.
(författare)
-
Preface
- 2018
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Ingår i: Methods in Molecular Biology. - : Humana Press. ; , s. v-vi
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 4. |
- Thalén, Niklas, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Systems biology greatly improve activity of secreted therapeutic sulfatase in CHO bioprocess
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Rare diseases are, despite their name, collectively common and millions of people are affected daily of conditions where treatment often is unavailable. Sulfatases are a large family of activating enzymes related to several of these diseases. Heritable genetic variations in sulfatases may lead to impaired activity and a reduced macromolecular breakdown within the lysosome, with several severe and lethal conditions as a consequence. While therapeutic options are scarce, treatment for some sulfatase deficiencies by recombinant enzyme replacement are available. However, such recombinant production of sulfatases suffers greatly from low product activity and yield, further limiting accessibility for patient groups. Here, we have addressed this problem by defining key-proteins necessary for active sulfatase secretion by comparison of CHO clones with different levels of production of active sulfatase. Quantitative transcriptomic analysis highlighted 14 key genes associated with sulfatase production, and experimental validation by co-expression improved the sulfatase enzyme activity by up to 150-fold. Furthermore, a correlation between product mRNA levels and sulfatase activity were observed and expression with lower activity promoters showed an increased in sulfatase activity. The workflow devised is general and we propose it to be useful for resolving bottlenecks in cellular machineries for improvement of cell factories for other biologics as well.
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| 5. |
- Thalén, Niklas, et al.
(författare)
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Tuning of CHO secretional machinery improve activity of secreted therapeutic sulfatase 150-fold
- 2024
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Ingår i: Metabolic engineering. - : Elsevier BV. - 1096-7176 .- 1096-7184. ; 81, s. 157-166
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Rare diseases are, despite their name, collectively common and millions of people are affected daily of conditions where treatment often is unavailable. Sulfatases are a large family of activating enzymes related to several of these diseases. Heritable genetic variations in sulfatases may lead to impaired activity and a reduced macromolecular breakdown within the lysosome, with several severe and lethal conditions as a consequence. While therapeutic options are scarce, treatment for some sulfatase deficiencies by recombinant enzyme replacement are available. The recombinant production of such sulfatases suffers greatly from both low product activity and yield, further limiting accessibility for patient groups. To mitigate the low product activity, we have investigated cellular properties through computational evaluation of cultures with varying media conditions and comparison of two CHO clones with different levels of one active sulfatase variant. Transcriptome analysis identified 18 genes in secretory pathways correlating with increased sulfatase production. Experimental validation by upregulation of a set of three key genes improved the specific enzymatic activity at varying degree up to 150-fold in another sulfatase variant, broadcasting general production benefits. We also identified a correlation between product mRNA levels and sulfatase activity that generated an increase in sulfatase activity when expressed with a weaker promoter. Furthermore, we suggest that our proposed workflow for resolving bottlenecks in cellular machineries, to be useful for improvements of cell factories for other biologics as well.
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| 6. |
- Anfelt, Josefine, et al.
(författare)
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Genetic and nutrient modulation of acetyl-CoA levels in Synechocystis for n-butanol production
- 2015
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Ingår i: Microbial Cell Factories. - : BioMed Central. - 1475-2859. ; 14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: There is a strong interest in using photosynthetic cyanobacteria as production hosts for biofuels and chemicals. Recent work has shown the benefit of pathway engineering, enzyme tolerance, and co-factor usage for improving yields of fermentation products. Results: An n-butanol pathway was inserted into a Synechocystis mutant deficient in polyhydroxybutyrate synthesis. We found that nitrogen starvation increased specific butanol productivity up to threefold, but cessation of cell growth limited total n-butanol titers. Metabolite profiling showed that acetyl-CoA increased twofold during nitrogen starvation. Introduction of a phosphoketolase increased acetyl-CoA levels sixfold at nitrogen replete conditions and increased butanol titers from 22 to 37 mg/L at day 8. Flux balance analysis of photoautotrophic metabolism showed that a Calvin-Benson-Bassham-Phosphoketolase pathway had higher theoretical butanol productivity than CBB-Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas and a reduced butanol ATP demand. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that phosphoketolase overexpression and modulation of nitrogen levels are two attractive routes toward increased production of acetyl-CoA derived products in cyanobacteria and could be implemented with complementary metabolic engineering strategies.
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| 7. |
- Aniander, Gustav, et al.
(författare)
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Enhanced titer and quality of IgGs through alterations at the translation initiation sequence
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Enhancing recombinant expression in mammalian cells remains an important and valuable goal. Much work has been done to develop cell lines, growth conditions, and expression vectors. However, some parts of the expression vector have been comparatively neglected in this quest for improvement. One such part is the translation initiation site (TIS) sequence, which drives translation initiation by increasing ribosomal recognition of the start codon. Using earlier work on what nucleotides could be exchanged for increased expression, we here present a novel TIS sequence. This TIS sequence increased titer in transient settings 4-fold while yielding 13-33 % increase in titer in final selected stable clones. This increase also comes with an increase in quality through reduction in non-paired chains, shift in charged species distribution, whilst maintaining the glycosylation profile. This increase in both titer and quality in transient and stable settings showing that TIS sequence engineering is of great interest for optimizing recombinant production in mammalian cells.
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| 8. |
- Aniander, Gustav
(författare)
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Improved candidate screening through tailored co-culture assays and precise tuning of protein expression
- 2024
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The field of biopharmaceuticals is a rapidly growing one. In the last ten years the number of approved biopharmaceuticals has more than doubled. A major hurdle to overcome for increased availability of all the new, effective biopharmaceuticals is the cost of treatment. Much of this can be attributed to the sheer time required for their development. Owing to this, interest in improvements to the biopharmaceuticals and their development process has also rapidly increased. As costs increase the further into development a drug candidate progresses, increasing the fidelity of screening at early stages could alleviate some of the exorbitant costs of development.In paper I, we showcase a novel way of targeting the tumor microenvironment (TME) to allow for TMElocalized CD40 activation. This is of interest as CD40 agonists have shown great potential for immune activation, but with systemic activation leading to severe adverse effects. The localized activation is achieved through the construction of an affinity fusion protein termed an AffiMab through fusion of a platelet derived growth factor receptor beta (PDGFRβ) targeting affibody to the heavy chain of a CD40 agonistic monoclonal antibody (mAb). We demonstrate PDGFRβ-dependent activation in a variety of assays, showing that the approach merits further investigation.Building on the activation assays set up in paper I, we aim to generate an in vitro screening platform for immune cell engagers in paper II. Screening candidates for on-target off-tumor activation is essential, as such activation would lead to adverse effects and be a doselimiting factor. To screen for this, we construct a series of plasmids which upon transfecting cells allow for different levels of a cell-surface target protein to be expressed, a so-called target density panel. This is achieved through the use of hairpin forming elements in the 5’ untranslated region of the mRNA dubbed regulatory elements (RgEs). Through use of different RgEs, we show that a target density panel can be generated and validate it in activation assays with the AffiMab developed in paper I. The platforms’ uniform cell surface background due to all different levels of target being expressed in the same host cell line and tunability through use of different RgEs are features that make it interesting for further research.Finally in paper III, we construct and test an improved translation initiation site (TIS) sequence. Using previous studies on the impact of the nucleotides in the sequence on the efficacy of the TIS, we constructed a novel sequence, TISNOV. This sequence enhanced titer and quality for recombinant production of IgG1 and IgG4 in both stable and transient settings. Further research into other TIS sequences and their uses in regulating protein expression, as well as usage of the TISNOV to improve expression of difficult to express proteins such as bispecifics remain interesting.In conclusion this thesis focuses on different manners to improve and hasten development of new biopharmaceuticals through usage of new workflows, platforms, and genetic engineering strategies.
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| 9. |
- Berglund, Lisa, et al.
(författare)
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A whole-genome bioinformatics approach to selection of antigens for systematic antibody generation
- 2008
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Ingår i: Proteomics. - : Wiley. - 1615-9853 .- 1615-9861. ; 8:14, s. 2832-2839
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Here, we present an antigen selection strategy based on a whole-genome bioinformatics approach, which is facilitated by an interactive visualization tool displaying protein features from both public resources and in-house generated data. The web-based bioinformatics platform has been designed for selection of multiple, non-overlapping recombinant protein epitope signature tags by display of predicted information relevant for antigens, including domain- and epitope sized sequence similarities to other proteins, transmembrane regions and signal peptides. The visualization tool also displays shared and exclusive protein regions for genes with multiple splice variants. A genome-wide analysis demonstrates that antigens for approximately 80% of the human protein-coding genes can be selected with this strategy.
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| 10. |
- Buus, S., et al.
(författare)
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High-resolution mapping of linear antibody epitopes using ultrahigh-density peptide microarrays
- 2012
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Ingår i: Molecular & Cellular Proteomics. - 1535-9476 .- 1535-9484. ; 11:12, s. 1790-1800
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Antibodies empower numerous important scientific, clinical, diagnostic, and industrial applications. Ideally, the epitope(s) targeted by an antibody should be identified and characterized, thereby establishing antibody reactivity, highlighting possible cross-reactivities, and perhaps even warning against unwanted (e.g. autoimmune) reactivities. Antibodies target proteins as either conformational or linear epitopes. The latter are typically probed with peptides, but the cost of peptide screening programs tends to prohibit comprehensive specificity analysis. To perform high-throughput, high-resolution mapping of linear antibody epitopes, we have used ultrahigh-density peptide microarrays generating several hundred thousand different peptides per array. Using exhaustive length and substitution analysis, we have successfully examined the specificity of a panel of polyclonal antibodies raised against linear epitopes of the human proteome and obtained very detailed descriptions of the involved specificities. The epitopes identified ranged from 4 to 12 amino acids in size. In general, the antibodies were of exquisite specificity, frequently disallowing even single conservative substitutions. In several cases, multiple distinct epitopes could be identified for the same target protein, suggesting an efficient approach to the generation of paired antibodies. Two alternative epitope mapping approaches identified similar, although not necessarily identical, epitopes. These results show that ultrahigh-density peptide microarrays can be used for linear epitope mapping. With an upper theoretical limit of 2,000,000 individual peptides per array, these peptide microarrays may even be used for a systematic validation of antibodies at the proteomic level.
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| 11. |
- Eisenhut, P., et al.
(författare)
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Systematic use of synthetic 5'-UTR RNA structures to tune protein translation improves yield and quality of complex proteins in mammalian cell factories
- 2020
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Ingår i: Nucleic Acids Research. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0305-1048 .- 1362-4962. ; 48:20
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Predictably regulating protein expression levels to improve recombinant protein production has become an important tool, but is still rarely applied to engineer mammalian cells. We therefore sought to set-up an easy-to-implement toolbox to facilitate fast and reliable regulation of protein expression in mammalian cells by introducing defined RNA hairpins, termed 'regulation elements (RgE)', in the 5'-untranslated region (UTR) to impact translation efficiency. RgEs varying in thermodynamic stability, GC-content and position were added to the 5'-UTR of a fluorescent reporter gene. Predictable translation dosage over two orders of magnitude in mammalian cell lines of hamster and human origin was confirmed by flow cytometry. Tuning heavy chain expression of an IgG with the RgEs to various levels eventually resulted in up to 3.5-fold increased titers and fewer IgG aggregates and fragments in CHO cells. Co-expression of a therapeutic Arylsulfatase-A with RgE-tuned levels of the required helper factor SUMF1 demonstrated that the maximum specific sulfatase activity was already attained at lower SUMF1 expression levels, while specific production rates steadily decreased with increasing helper expression. In summary, we show that defined 5'-UTR RNA-structures represent a valid tool to systematically tune protein expression levels in mammalian cells and eventually help to optimize recombinant protein expression.
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| 12. |
- Forsström, Björn, et al.
(författare)
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Dissecting Antibodies with Regards to Linear and Conformational Epitopes
- 2015
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 10:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An important issue for the performance and specificity of an antibody is the nature of the binding to its protein target, including if the recognition involves linear or conformational epitopes. Here, we dissect polyclonal sera by creating epitope-specific antibody fractions using a combination of epitope mapping and an affinity capture approach involving both synthesized peptides and recombinant protein fragments. This allowed us to study the relative amounts of antibodies to linear and conformational epitopes in the polyclonal sera as well as the ability of each antibody-fraction to detect its target protein in Western blot assays. The majority of the analyzed polyclonal sera were found to have most of the target-specific antibodies directed towards linear epitopes and these were in many cases giving Western blot bands of correct molecular weight. In contrast, many of the antibodies towards conformational epitopes did not bind their target proteins in the Western blot assays. The results from this work have given us insights regarding the nature of the antibody response generated by immunization with recombinant protein fragments and has demonstrated the advantage of using antibodies recognizing linear epitopes for immunoassay involving wholly or partially denatured protein targets.
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| 13. |
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| 14. |
- Forsström, Bjorn, et al.
(författare)
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Proteome-wide Epitope Mapping of Antibodies Using Ultra-dense Peptide Arrays
- 2014
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Ingår i: Molecular & Cellular Proteomics. - 1535-9476 .- 1535-9484. ; 13:6, s. 1585-1597
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Antibodies are of importance for the field of proteomics, both as reagents for imaging cells, tissues, and organs and as capturing agents for affinity enrichment in mass-spectrometry-based techniques. It is important to gain basic insights regarding the binding sites (epitopes) of antibodies and potential cross-reactivity to nontarget proteins. Knowledge about an antibody's linear epitopes is also useful in, for instance, developing assays involving the capture of peptides obtained from trypsin cleavage of samples prior to mass spectrometry analysis. Here, we describe, for the first time, the design and use of peptide arrays covering all human proteins for the analysis of antibody specificity, based on parallel in situ photolithic synthesis of a total of 2.1 million overlapping peptides. This has allowed analysis of on-and off-target binding of both monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies, complemented with precise mapping of epitopes based on full amino acid substitution scans. The analysis suggests that linear epitopes are relatively short, confined to five to seven residues, resulting in apparent off-target binding to peptides corresponding to a large number of unrelated human proteins. However, subsequent analysis using recombinant proteins suggests that these linear epitopes have a strict conformational component, thus giving us new insights regarding how antibodies bind to their antigens.
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| 15. |
- Hansen, Henning Gram, et al.
(författare)
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Versatile microscale screening platform for improving recombinant protein productivity in Chinese hamster ovary cells
- 2015
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2045-2322. ; 5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are widely used as cell factories for the production of biopharmaceuticals. In contrast to the highly optimized production processes for monoclonal antibody (mAb)-based biopharmaceuticals, improving productivity of non-mAb therapeutic glycoproteins is more likely to reduce production costs significantly. The aim of this study was to establish a versatile target gene screening platform for improving productivity for primarily non-mAb glycoproteins with complete interchangeability of model proteins and target genes using transient expression. The platform consists of four techniques compatible with 96-well microplates: lipid-based transient transfection, cell cultivation in microplates, cell counting and antibody-independent product titer determination based on split-GFP complementation. We were able to demonstrate growth profiles and volumetric productivity of CHO cells in 96-half-deepwell microplates comparable with those obtained in shake flasks. In addition, we demonstrate that split-GFP complementation can be used to accurately measure relative titers of therapeutic glycoproteins. Using this platform, we were able to detect target gene-specific increase in titer and specific productivity of two non-mAb glycoproteins. In conclusion, the platform provides a novel miniaturized and parallelisable solution for screening target genes and holds the potential to unravel genes that can enhance the secretory capacity of CHO cells.
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| 16. |
- Hendrikse, Natalie, et al.
(författare)
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Ancestral lysosomal enzymes with increased activity harbor therapeutic potential for treatment of Hunter syndrome
- 2021
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Ingår i: ISCIENCE. - : Elsevier BV. - 2589-0042. ; 24:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We show the successful application of ancestral sequence reconstruction to enhance the activity of iduronate-2-sulfatase (IDS), thereby increasing its therapeutic potential for the treatment of Hunter syndrome-a lysosomal storage disease caused by impaired function of IDS. Current treatment, enzyme replacement therapy with recombinant human IDS, does not alleviate all symptoms, and an unmet medical need remains. We reconstructed putative ancestral sequences of mammalian IDS and compared them with extant IDS. Some ancestral variants displayed up to 2-fold higher activity than human IDS in in vitro assays and cleared more substrate in ex vivo experiments in patient fibroblasts. This could potentially allow for lower dosage or enhanced therapeutic effect in enzyme replacement therapy, thereby improving treatment outcomes and cost efficiency, as well as reducing treatment burden. In summary, we showed that ancestral sequence reconstruction can be applied to lysosomal enzymes that function in concert with modern enzymes and receptors in cells.
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| 17. |
- Hendrikse, Natalie
(författare)
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Engineering enzymes towards biotherapeutic applications using ancestral sequence reconstruction
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Enzymes are versatile biocatalysts that fulfill essential functions in all forms of life and, therefore, play an important role in health and disease. One specific application of enzymes in life science is their use as biopharmaceuticals, which typically benefits from high catalytic activity and stability. Increased stability and activity are both desirable properties for biopharmaceuticals as they are directly related to dosage, which in turn affects administration time, cost of production and potency of a drug. The aim of the work presented in this thesis is to enhance the therapeutic potential of enzymes by means of enzyme engineering, in particular using ancestral sequence reconstruction. In Paper I, we established the utility of this method in a model system and obtained ancestral terpene cyclases with increased activity, stability and substrate scope. In Paper II, we described the successful crystallization of the most stable ancestral terpene cyclase, which allowed for rational design of substrate specificity. Finally, we applied the method to two therapeutically relevant enzyme families associated with rare metabolic disorders. We obtained ancestral phenylalanine/tyrosine ammonia-lyases with substantially enhanced thermostability and long-term stability in Paper III and ancestral iduronate-2-sulfatases with increased activity in Paper IV. In summary, the results presented herein highlight the potential of ancestral sequence reconstruction as a method to obtain stable enzyme scaffolds for further engineering and to enhance therapeutic properties of enzymes.
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| 18. |
- Hjelm, Barbara, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring epitopes of antibodies toward the human tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase
- 2010
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Ingår i: NEW BIOTECHNOL. - : Elsevier BV. - 1871-6784. ; 27:2, s. 129-137
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is a need to characterize the epitopes of affinity reagents to develop high quality affinity reagents for research, diagnostics and therapy. Here, we describe the analysis of epitopes of antibodies generated toward human tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase (WARS) using both combinatorial bacterial display and suspension bead array. The bacterial display revealed that the polyclonal antibody binds to three separate epitopes and peptide scanning using 15-mers revealed binding to a 13 amino acid consensus sequence (ELINRIERATGQR). A mouse monoclonal antibody was generated and the mapping approach revealed binding toward a slightly shifted position of the same epitope. Structural analysis showed that the antibodies bind to a-helical regions on the surface of the target protein. An alanine-scanning experiment showed binding to four specific residues. The implications for the systematic analysis of antibody epitopes on the basis of these results are discussed.
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| 19. |
- Hjelm, Barbara, et al.
(författare)
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Generation of monospecific antibodies based on affinity capture of polyclonal antibodies
- 2011
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Ingår i: Protein Science. - : Wiley. - 0961-8368 .- 1469-896X. ; 20:11, s. 1824-1835
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A method is described to generate and validate antibodies based on mapping the linear epitopes of a polyclonal antibody followed by sequential epitope-specific capture using synthetic peptides. Polyclonal antibodies directed towards four proteins RBM3, SATB2, ANLN, and CNDP1, potentially involved in human cancers, were selected and antibodies to several non-overlapping epitopes were generated and subsequently validated by Western blot, immunohistochemistry, and immunofluorescence. For all four proteins, a dramatic difference in functionality could be observed for these monospecific antibodies directed to the different epitopes. In each case, at least one antibody was obtained with full functionality across all applications, while other epitope-specific fractions showed no or little functionality. These results present a path forward to use the mapped binding sites of polyclonal antibodies to generate epitope-specific antibodies, providing an attractive approach for large-scale efforts to characterize the human proteome by antibodies.
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| 20. |
- Hjelm, Barbara, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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Immunizations of inbred rabbits using the same antigen yield antibodies with similar, but not identical, epitopes
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A problem for the generation of polyclonal antibodies is the potential difficulties to obtain a renewable resource due to batch-to-batch variations when the same antigen is immunized into several separate animals. Here, we have investigated this issue by determining the epitopes of antibodies generated from parallel immunizations of in-bred rabbits with recombinant antigens corresponding to ten human protein targets. The epitopes were mapped by both a suspension bead array approach using overlapping synthetic 15-mer peptides and a bacterial display approach using expression of random fragments of the antigen gene on the surface of bacteria. Both methods determined antibody binding with the aid of fluorescent-based analysis. In addition, one polyclonal antibody was fractionated by peptide-specific affinity capture for in-depth comparison of epitopes. The results show that the same antigen immunized in several in-bred rabbits yields polyclonal antibodies with similar epitopes, but with larger differences in the relative amounts of antibodies to the different epitopes. In some cases, unique epitopes were observed for one of the immunizations. The results suggest that polyclonal antibodies generated by repeated immunizations do not display an identical epitope pattern, although many of the epitopes are similar.
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| 21. |
- Hjelm, Barbara, et al.
(författare)
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Parallel Immunizations of Rabbits Using the Same Antigen Yield Antibodies with Similar, but Not Identical, Epitopes
- 2012
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 7:12, s. e45817-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A problem for the generation of polyclonal antibodies is the potential difficulties for obtaining a renewable resource due to batch-to-batch variations when the same antigen is immunized into several separate animals. Here, we have investigated this issue by determining the epitopes of antibodies generated from parallel immunizations of rabbits with recombinant antigens corresponding to ten human protein targets. The epitopes were mapped by both a suspension bead array approach using overlapping synthetic 15-mer peptides and a bacterial display approach using expression of random fragments of the antigen on the surface of bacteria. Both methods determined antibody binding with the aid of fluorescent-based analysis. In addition, one polyclonal antibody was fractionated by peptide-specific affinity capture for in-depth comparison of epitopes. The results show that the same antigen immunized in several rabbits yields polyclonal antibodies with similar epitopes, but with larger differences in the relative amounts of antibodies to the different epitopes. In some cases, unique epitopes were observed for one of the immunizations. The results suggest that polyclonal antibodies generated by repeated immunizations do not display an identical epitope pattern, although many of the epitopes are similar.
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| 22. |
- Hu, Francis Jingxin, 1986-, et al.
(författare)
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Combination of phage and Gram-positive bacterial display of human antibody repertoires enables isolation of functional high affinity binders
- 2018
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Ingår i: New Biotechnology. - : Elsevier. - 1871-6784 .- 1876-4347. ; 45, s. 80-88
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Surface display couples genotype with a surface exposed phenotype and thereby allows screening of gene-encoded protein libraries for desired characteristics. Of the various display systems available, phage display is by far the most popular, mainly thanks to its ability to harbour large size libraries. Here, we describe the first use of a Gram-positive bacterial host for display of a library of human antibody genes which, when combined with phage display, provides ease of use for screening, sorting and ranking by flow cytometry. We demonstrate the utility of this method by identifying low nanomolar affinity scFv fragments towards human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). The ranking and performance of the scFv isolated by flow sorting in surface-immobilised form was retained when expressed as soluble scFv and analysed by biolayer interferometry, as well as after expression as full-length antibodies in mammalian cells. We also demonstrate the possibility of using Gram-positive bacterial display to directly improve the affinity of the identified binders via an affinity maturation step using random mutagenesis and flow sorting. This combined approach has the potential for a more complete scan of the antibody repertoire and for affinity maturation of human antibody formats.
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| 23. |
- Hu, Francis Jingxin, et al.
(författare)
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Generation of HER2 monoclonal antibodies using epitopes of a rabbit polyclonal antibody
- 2014
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Ingår i: New Biotechnology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1871-6784 .- 1876-4347. ; 31:1, s. 35-43
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- One of the issues in using polyclonal antibodies is the limited amount of reagent available from an immunisation, leading to batch-to-batch variation and difficulties in obtaining the same antibody performance when the same antigen is re-immunised into several separate animals. This led to the development of hybridoma technology allowing, at least theoretically, for an unlimited production of a specific binder. Nevertheless, polyclonal antibodies are widely used in research and diagnostics and there exists a need for robust methods to convert a polyclonal antibody with good binding performance into a renewable monoclonal with identical or similar binding specificity. Here we have used precise information regarding the functional recognition sequence (epitope) of a rabbit polyclonal antibody with attractive binding characteristics as the basis for generation of a renewable mouse monoclonal antibody. First, the original protein fragment antigen was used for immunisation and generation of mouse hybridoma, without obtaining binders to the same epitope region. Instead a peptide designed using the functional epitope and structural information was synthesised and used for hybridoma production. Several of the monoclonal antibodies generated were found to have similar binding characteristics to those of the original polyclonal antibody. These monoclonal antibodies detected native HER2 on cell lines and were also able to stain HER2 in immunohistochemistry using xenografted mice, as well as human normal and cancer tissues.
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| 24. |
- Hu, Francis Jingxin, 1986-, et al.
(författare)
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Phage and Gram-positive bacterial display of human antibody repertoires enables isolation of functional high affinity binders
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Ingår i: New Biotechnology. - 1871-6784 .- 1876-4347.
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Surface display couples genotype with a surface exposed phenotype and thereby allows for screening of gene-encoded protein libraries for desired characteristics. Of the various display systems, phage display is by far the most popular, mainly thanks to its ability to harbor large library sizes. Here, we describe the first use of a grampositive host for display of a library of human antibody genes. The method allows for swift generation of binders by combining phage and gram-positive display, for its ease of use for screening, sorting and ranking by flow cytometry. We demonstrate the utility of this method by identifying specific low nanomolar scFv towards human HER2. The ranking and performance of the scFv isolated by flow sorting in surface immobilized form was retained when expressed as soluble scFv and analyzed by biolayer interferometry as well as after expression as full-length antibodies in mammalian cells. We also show the possibility to use gram-positive display to directly improve the affinity of the identified binders via an affinity maturation step using random mutagenesis and flow sorting. We believe this combined approach has the potential for a more complete scan of the antibody repertoire and for swift affinity maturation of human antibody formats.
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| 25. |
- Hu, Francis Jingxin, 1986-, et al.
(författare)
-
SAMURAI (Solid-phase Assisted Mutagenesis by Uracil Restricted Ablation In vitro) for Antibody Affinity Maturation and Paratope Mapping
-
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Mutagenesis libraries are essential for combinatorial protein engineering. Despite improve- ments in gene synthesis and directed mutagenesis, current methodologies still have limitations regarding the synthesis of intact antibody scFv genes and simultaneous diversification of all six CDRs. Here, we de- scribe the generation of mutagenesis libraries for antibody affinity maturation, using a cell-free solid-phase technique for annealing of single-strand mutagenic oligonucleotides. This procedure consists of PCR-based incorporation of uracil into a wild-type template, bead-based capture, and elution of single-strand DNA, and in vitro uracil excision enzyme based degradation of the template DNA. Our approach enabled rapid (8 hours) mutagenesis and automated cloning of 50 position specific alanine mutants for mapping of a scFv antibody paratope. We further exemplify our method by generating affinity maturation libraries with di- versity introduced in critical, nonessential, or all CDR positions randomly. Assessment with Illumina deep sequencing showed >99% functional diversity in two libraries and the ability to diversify all CDR positions simultaneously. Selections of the libraries with bacterial display and deep sequencing evaluation of the selection output showed that diversity introduced in non-essential positions allowed quicker enrichment of improved binders compared to the other two diversification strategies.
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| 26. |
- Hu, Francis Jingxin, 1986-, et al.
(författare)
-
SAMURAI (Solid-phase Assisted Mutagenesis by Uracil Restriction for Accurate Integration) for antibody affinity maturation and paratope mapping
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Nucleic Acids Research. - : OXFORD UNIV PRESS. - 0305-1048 .- 1362-4962. ; 47:6
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mutagenesis libraries are essential for combinatorial protein engineering. Despite improvements in gene synthesis and directed mutagenesis, current methodologies still have limitations regarding the synthesis of complete antibody single-chain variable fragment (scFv) genes and simultaneous diversification of all six CDRs. Here, we describe the generation of mutagenesis libraries for antibody affinity maturation using a cell-free solid-phase technique for annealing of single-strand mutagenic oligonucleotides. The procedure consists of PCR-based incorporation of uracil into a wild-type template, bead-based capture, elution of single-strand DNA, and in vitro uracil excision enzyme based degradation of the template DNA. Our approach enabled rapid (8 hours) mutagenesis and automated cloning of 50 position-specific alanine mutants for mapping of a scFv antibody paratope. We further exemplify our method by generating affinity maturation libraries with diversity introduced in critical, nonessential, or all CDR positions randomly. Assessment with Illumina deep sequencing showed less than 1% wild-type in two libraries and the ability to diversify all CDR positions simultaneously. Selections of the libraries with bacterial display and deep sequencing evaluation of the selection output showed that diversity introduced in non-essential positions allowed for a more effective enrichment of improved binders compared to the other two diversification strategies.
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| 27. |
- Hu, Francis Jingxin, 1986-, et al.
(författare)
-
SPUX - A Solid Phase Uracil Excision Method for Antibody Affinity Maturation and Paratope Mapping
-
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Mutagenesis libraries are the heart of combinatorial protein engineering where proteins such as antibodies are evolved for improved functionality. Despite recent improvements in gene synthesis and selection methodologies, current methods still fail to provide practical means for synthesis of complete antibody scFv and screening of theoretical diversities, hence forcing the user to focused diversity screening and assembly of shorter oligos to avoid synthesis errors and maximize library functionality. Here we demonstrate a way to generate highly functional tailored mutagenesis libraries for efficient antibody affinity maturation using a rapid cell-free solid phase cloning method with single strand diversity oligonucleotides. For this we are utilizing a combination of a high-fidelity polymerase for PCR-based incorporation of Uracil into a wild-type template, bead-based solid-phase technology for elution of single strand DNA, oligonucleotide annealing, extension and automation, and an uracil excision enzyme cocktail for in vitro degradation of template DNA to minimize background. Our method allowed for fast (8 hours) mutagenesis and automated cloning of a complete set of 50 position specific alanine-mutations for mapping of the paratope of a scFv antibody in a single robot run. We further exemplify our method by generating and stratifying a set of antibody scFv affinity maturation libraries with targeted diversity into critical or nonessential paratope positions, as well as by a complete randomization in all positions. The libraries were subjected to bacterial surface display selections and output was followed by Illumina deep sequencing and binding analysis by SPR. The functional quality of our libraries were high, with a yield of >99% functional diversity in the case for two of our libraries. We were further able to target all positions in all loops with diversity, and we could show the ability to target all six loops with diversity at the same time. The comparison of different library focus showed us that scFv libraries with diversity targeted to non-essential enhancing paratope positions more quickly rendered enrichment of improved binders compared to random diversity or paratope-targeted libraries. Surprisingly several of the improved binders from the random library had beneficial mutations in the same positions targeted by the smaller focused non-essential enhancing residue focused library indicating a possible benefit of focusing diversity to these spots. We believe our method for construction of libraries with site directed mutagenesis to be a viable way for generation of functional and diverse genetic libraries, particularly suitable for affinity maturation and paratope mapping of antibodies.
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| 28. |
- Hu, Francis Jingxin, 1986-
(författare)
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Utilizing Solid Phase Cloning, Surface Display And Epitope Information for Antibody Generation and Characterization
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Antibodies have become indispensable tools in diagnostics, research and as therapeutics. There are several strategies to generate monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in order to avoid the drawbacks of polyclonal antibodies (pAbs) for therapeutic use. Moreover, the growing interest in precision medicine requires a well-characterized target and antibody to predict the responsiveness of a treatment. This thesis describes the use of epitope information and display technologies to generate and characterize antibodies. In Paper I, we evaluated if the epitope information of a well-characterized pAb could be used to generate mAbs with retained binding characteristics. In Paper II, the epitope on the complement protein C5 towards Eculizumab was mapped with surface display, the results of which explained the non-responsiveness of Eculizumab treatment among a patient group due to a mutated C5 gene. With this in mind, we showed efficacy in treatment of the mutated C5 variants using a drug binding to another site on C5, suggesting that our approach can be used to guide treatment in precision medicine. In Paper III, a Gram-positive bacterial display platform was evaluated to complement existing platforms for selection of human scFv libraries. When combined with phage display, a thorough library screening and isolation of nano-molar binders was possible. In Paper IV, a solid phase method for directed mutagenesis was developed to generate functional affinity maturation libraries by simultaneous targeting of all six CDRs. The method was also used to create numerous individual mutants to map the paratope of the parent scFv. The paratope information was used to create directed libraries and deep sequencing of the affinity maturation libraries confirmed the viability of the combination approach. Taken together, precise epitope/paratope information together with display technologies have the potential to generate attractive therapeutic antibodies and direct treatment in precision medicine.
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| 29. |
- Hudson, Elton P., et al.
(författare)
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Automated Solid-Phase Subcloning Based on Beads Brought into Proximity by Magnetic Force
- 2012
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 7:5, s. e37429-
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the fields of proteomics, metabolic engineering and synthetic biology there is a need for high-throughput and reliable cloning methods to facilitate construction of expression vectors and genetic pathways. Here, we describe a new approach for solid-phase cloning in which both the vector and the gene are immobilized to separate paramagnetic beads and brought into proximity by magnetic force. Ligation events were directly evaluated using fluorescent-based microscopy and flow cytometry. The highest ligation efficiencies were obtained when gene- and vector-coated beads were brought into close contact by application of a magnet during the ligation step. An automated procedure was developed using a laboratory workstation to transfer genes into various expression vectors and more than 95% correct clones were obtained in a number of various applications. The method presented here is suitable for efficient subcloning in an automated manner to rapidly generate a large number of gene constructs in various vectors intended for high throughput applications.
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| 30. |
- Hudson, Elton P., et al.
(författare)
-
Multiplex epitope mapping using bacterial surface display reveals both linear and conformational epitopes
- 2012
-
Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 2, s. 706-
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As antibody-based diagnosis and therapy grow at an increased pace, there is a need for methods which rapidly and accurately determine antibody-antigen interactions. Here, we report a method for the multiplex determination of antibody epitopes using bacterial cell-surface display. A protein-fragment library with 107 cell clones, covering 60 clinically-relevant protein targets, was created and characterized with massively parallel sequencing. Using this multi-target fragment library we determined simultaneously epitopes of commercial monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies targeting PSMA, EGFR, and VEGF. Off-target binding was observed for one of the antibodies, which demonstrates the method's ability to reveal cross-reactivity. We exemplify the detection of structural epitopes by mapping the therapeutic antibody Avastin. Based on our findings we suggest this method to be suitable for mapping linear and structural epitopes of monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies in a multiplex fashion and could find applicability in serum profiling as well as other protein-protein interaction studies.
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| 31. |
- Häussler, Ragna S., et al.
(författare)
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Systematic Development of Sandwich Immunoassays for the Plasma Secretome
- 2019
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Ingår i: Proteomics. - : Wiley. - 1615-9853 .- 1615-9861.
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The plasma proteome offers a clinically useful window into human health. Recent advances from highly multiplexed assays now call for appropriate pipelines to validate individual candidates. Here, a workflow is developed to build dual binder sandwich immunoassays (SIA) and for proteins predicted to be secreted into plasma. Utilizing suspension bead arrays, ≈1800 unique antibody pairs are first screened against 209 proteins with recombinant proteins as well as EDTA plasma. Employing 624 unique antibodies, dilution-dependent curves in plasma and concentration-dependent curves of full-length proteins for 102 (49%) of the targets are obtained. For 22 protein assays, the longitudinal, interindividual, and technical performance is determined in a set of plasma samples collected from 18 healthy subjects every third month over 1 year. Finally, 14 of these assays are compared with with SIAs composed of other binders, proximity extension assays, and affinity-free targeted mass spectrometry. The workflow provides a multiplexed approach to screen for SIA pairs that suggests using at least three antibodies per target. This design is applicable for a wider range of targets of the plasma proteome, and the assays can be applied for discovery but also to validate emerging candidates derived from other platforms.
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| 32. |
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| 33. |
- Jönsson, Malin, et al.
(författare)
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CaRA – A multi-purpose phage display library for selection of calcium-regulated affinity proteins
- 2022
-
Ingår i: New Biotechnology. - : Elsevier B.V.. - 1871-6784 .- 1876-4347. ; 72, s. 159-167
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Protein activity regulated by interactions with metal ions can be utilized for many different purposes, including biological therapies and bioprocessing, among others. Calcium ions are known to interact with the frequently occurring EF-hand motif, which can alter protein activity upon binding through an induced conformational change. The calcium-binding loop of the EF-hand motif has previously been introduced into a small protein domain derived from staphylococcal Protein A in a successful effort to render antibody binding dependent on calcium. Presented here, is a combinatorial library for calcium-regulated affinity, CaRA, based on this domain. CaRA is the first alternative scaffold library designed to achieve novel target specificities with metal-dependent binding. From this library, several calcium-dependent binders could be isolated through phage display campaigns towards a set of unrelated target proteins (IgE Cε3-Cε4, TNFα, IL23, scFv, tPA, PCSK9 and HER3) useful for distinct applications. Overall, these monomeric CaRA variants showed high stability and target affinities within the nanomolar range. They displayed considerably higher melting temperatures in the presence of 1 mM calcium compared to without calcium. Further, all discovered binders proved to be calcium-dependent, with the great majority showing complete lack of target binding in the absence of calcium. As demonstrated, the CaRA library is highly capable of providing protein-binding domains with calcium-dependent behavior, independent of the type of target protein. These binding domains could subsequently be of great use in gentle protein purification or as novel therapeutic modalities.
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| 34. |
- Klevebring, Daniel, et al.
(författare)
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Exome sequencing of contralateral breast cancer identifies metastatic disease
- 2015
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Ingår i: Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. - Stockholm : Karolinska Institutet, Dept of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics. - 0167-6806 .- 1573-7217.
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Women with contralateral breast cancer (CBC) have significantly worse prognosis compared to women with unilateral cancer. A possible explanation of the poor prognosis of patients with CBC is that in a subset of patients, the second cancer is not a new primary tumor but a metastasis of the first cancer that has potentially obtained aggressive characteristics through selection of treatment. Exome and whole-genome sequencing of solid tumors has previously been used to investigate the clonal relationship between primary tumors and metastases in several diseases. In order to assess the relationship between the first and the second cancer, we performed exome sequencing to identify somatic mutations in both first and second cancers, and compared paired normal tissue of 25 patients with metachronous CBC. For three patients, we identified shared somatic mutations indicating a common clonal origin thereby demonstrating that the second tumor is a metastasis of the first cancer, rather than a new primary cancer. Accordingly, these patients all developed distant metastasis within 3 years of the second diagnosis, compared with 7 out of 22 patients with non-shared somatic profiles. Genomic profiling of both tumors help the clinicians distinguish between true CBCs and subsequent metastases.
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| 35. |
- Ko, Bong-Kook, et al.
(författare)
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Combination of novel HER2-targeting antibody 1E11 with trastuzumab shows synergistic antitumor activity in HER2-positive gastric cancer
- 2015
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Ingår i: Molecular Oncology. - : Elsevier. - 1878-0261 .- 1574-7891. ; 9:2, s. 398-408
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The synergistic interaction of two antibodies targeting the same protein could be developed as an effective anti-cancer therapy. Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is overexpressed in 20-25% of breast and gastric cancer patients, and HER2-targeted antibody therapy using trastuzumab is effective in many of these patients. Nonetheless, improving therapeutic efficacy and patient survival is important, particularly in patients with HER2-positive gastric cancer. Here, we describe the development of 1E11, a HER2-targeted humanized monoclonal antibody showing increased efficacy in a highly synergistic manner in combination with trastuzumab in the HER2-overexpressing gastric cancer cell lines NCI-N87 and OE-19. The two antibodies bind to sub-domain IV of the receptor, but have non-overlapping epitopes, allowing them to simultaneously bind HER2. Treatment with 1E11 alone induced apoptosis in HER2-positive cancer cells, and this effect was enhanced by combination treatment with trastuzumab. Combination treatment with 1E11 and trastuzumab reduced the levels of total HER2 protein and those of aberrant HER2 signaling molecules including phosphorylated HER3 and EGFR. The synergistic antitumor activity of 1E11 in combination with trastuzumab indicates that it could be a novel potent therapeutic antibody for the treatment of HER2-overexpressing gastric cancers.
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| 36. |
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| 37. |
- Kronqvist, Nina, et al.
(författare)
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Staphylococcal surface display in combinatorial protein engineering and epitope mapping of antibodies
- 2010
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Ingår i: Recent Patents on Biotechnology. - : Bentham eBooks. - 1872-2083. ; 4:3, s. 171-182
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The field of combinatorial protein engineering for generation of new affinity proteins started in the mid 80s by the development of phage display. Although phage display is a prime example of a simple yet highly efficient method, manifested by still being the standard technique 25 years later, new alternative technologies are available today. One of the more successful new display technologies is cell display. Here we review the field of cell display for directed evolution purposes, with focus on a recently developed method employing Gram-positive staphylococci as display host. Patents on the most commonly used cell display systems and on different modifications as well as specific applications of these systems are also included. General strategies for selection of new affinity proteins from cell-displayed libraries are discussed, with detailed examples mainly from studies on the staphylococcal display system. In addition, strategies for characterization of recombinant proteins on the staphylococcal cell surface, with an emphasis on an approach for epitope mapping of antibodies, are included.
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| 38. |
- Lindskog, Mats, et al.
(författare)
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Selection of protein epitopes for antibody production
- 2005
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Ingår i: BioTechniques. - 0736-6205 .- 1940-9818. ; 38:5, s. 723-727
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Protein functional analysis in the post-genomic era is a huge task that has to be approached by different methods in parallel. The use of protein-specific antibodies in conjunction with tissue microarrays has proven to be one important technology. In this study, we present a strategy for the optimized design of protein subfragments for subsequent antibody production. The fragments are selected based on a principle of lowest sequence similarity to other human proteins, optimally to generate antibodies with high selectivity. Furthermore, the fragments should have properties optimized for efficient protein production in Escherichia coli. The strategy has been implemented in Bishop, which is a Java-based software enabling the high-throughput production of protein fragments. Bishop allows for the avoidance of certain restriction enzyme sites, transmembrane regions, and signal peptides. A Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) scanning procedure permits the selection of fragments of a selected size with a minimal sequence similarity to other proteins. The software and the strategy were evaluated on a human test data set and verified to fulfill the requested criteria.
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| 39. |
- Lundqvist, Magnus, et al.
(författare)
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Chromophore pre-maturation for improved speed and sensitivity of split-GFP monitoring of protein secretion
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. - 2045-2322. ; 9
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Complementation-dependent fluorescence is a powerful way to study co-localization or interactions between biomolecules. A split-GFP variant, involving the self-associating GFP 1-10 and GFP 11, has previously provided a convenient approach to measure recombinant protein titers in cell supernatants. A limitation of this approach is the slow chromophore formation after complementation. Here, we alleviate this lag in signal generation by allowing the GFP 1-10 chromophore to mature on a solid support containing GFP 11 before applying GFP 1-10 in analyses. The pre-maturated GFP 1-10 provided up to 150-fold faster signal generation compared to the non-maturated version. Moreover, pre-maturated GFP 1-10 significantly improved the ability of discriminating between Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines secreting GFP 11-tagged erythropoietin protein at varying rates. Its improved kinetics make the pre-maturated GFP 1-10 a suitable reporter molecule for cell biology research in general, especially for ranking individual cell lines based on secretion rates of recombinant proteins.
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| 40. |
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| 41. |
- Lundqvist, Magnus
(författare)
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Methods for cell line and protein engineering
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Therapeutic proteins are becoming increasingly important. They are desirable, as they typically possess low adverse effects and higher specificity compared to the traditional, small molecule drugs. But they are also more complex and involve different intricate and expensive development and production processes. Through new technologies in protein and cell line development, more efficient and safer drugs can be readily available and at a lower cost. This thesis gives an overview of how protein therapeutics are developed and produced. It explores strategies to improve the efficacy and safety of protein drugs and how to improve production yields. In the present investigation, two papers present new methods for high-throughput cloning and site-directed mutagenesis using solid-phase immobilization of DNA fragments. These methods were designed to generate new drug candidates with swiftness and ease. Three papers show the development of a new cell line screening system that combines droplet microfluidics and the split-GFP reporter system. This combination allows for relative quantification of secreted recombinant proteins between individual cells and provides a tool for the selection of the best-producing clones for final production from a heterologous cell pool. The final paper explores the possibility to produce proteins at a higher cell density by examining how the metabolome and proteome of a perfusion bioreactor evolve as the cell density reaches exceptionally high levels. The consistent goal of all of these studies is to expedite the development and improve the production of therapeutic proteins, to assist the discovery of new drugs and to bring down production and development costs. Engineered proteins can be used to cure previously incurable diseases or give current medications a higher efficacy. Lower production and development costs can make the treatments available to more people.
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| 42. |
- Lundqvist, Magnus, et al.
(författare)
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Solid-phase cloning for high-throughput assembly of single and multiple DNA parts
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Nucleic Acids Research. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0305-1048 .- 1362-4962. ; 43:7
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We describe solid-phase cloning (SPC) for high-throughput assembly of expression plasmids. Our method allows PCR products to be put directly into a liquid handler for capture and purification using paramagnetic streptavidin beads and conversion into constructs by subsequent cloning reactions. We present a robust automated protocol for restriction enzyme based SPC and its performance for the cloning of >60 000 unique human gene fragments into expression vectors. In addition, we report on SPC-based single-strand assembly for applications where exact control of the sequence between fragments is needed or where multiple inserts are to be assembled. In this approach, the solid support allows for head-to-tail assembly of DNA fragments based on hybridization and polymerase fill-in. The usefulness of head-to-tail SPC was demonstrated by assembly of >150 constructs with up to four DNA parts at an average success rate above 80%. We report on several applications for SPC and we suggest it to be particularly suitable for high-throughput efforts using laboratory workstations.
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| 43. |
- Malm, Magdalena, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
-
Evolution from adherent to suspension: systems biology of HEK293 cell line development
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322 .- 2045-2322. ; 10:1
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The need for new safe and efficacious therapies has led to an increased focus on biologics produced in mammalian cells. The human cell line HEK293 has bio-synthetic potential for human-like production attributes and is currently used for manufacturing of several therapeutic proteins and viral vectors. Despite the increased popularity of this strain we still have limited knowledge on the genetic composition of its derivatives. Here we present a genomic, transcriptomic and metabolic gene analysis of six of the most widely used HEK293 cell lines. Changes in gene copy and expression between industrial progeny cell lines and the original HEK293 were associated with cellular component organization, cell motility and cell adhesion. Changes in gene expression between adherent and suspension derivatives highlighted switching in cholesterol biosynthesis and expression of five key genes (RARG, ID1, ZIC1, LOX and DHRS3), a pattern validated in 63 human adherent or suspension cell lines of other origin.
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| 44. |
- Malm, Magdalena, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
-
Harnessing secretory pathway differences between HEK293 and CHO to rescue production of difficult to express proteins
-
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Biologics represent the fastest growing group of therapeutics, but many advanced recombinant protein moieties remain difficult to produce. Here, we identify bottlenecks limiting expression of recombinant human proteins through a systems biology analysis of the transcriptomes of CHO and HEK293 during recombinant overexpression. Surprisingly, one third of the challenging human proteins displayed improved secretion upon host cell swapping from CHO to HEK293. While most components of the secretory machinery showed comparable expression levels in both expression hosts, genes with significant expression variation were identified. Among these, ATF4, SRP9, JUN, PDIA3 and HSPA8 were validated as productivity boosters in CHO. Further, more heavily glycosylated products benefitted more from the elevated activities of the N- and O-glycosyltransferases found in HEK293. Collectively, our results demonstrate the utilization of HEK293 for expression rescue of human proteins and suggest a methodology for identification of secretory pathway components improving recombinant protein yield in HEK293 and CHO.
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| 45. |
- Malm, Magdalena, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
-
Harnessing secretory pathway differences between HEK293 and CHO to rescue production of difficult to express proteins
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Metabolic engineering. - : Elsevier BV. - 1096-7176 .- 1096-7184. ; 72, s. 171-187
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Biologics represent the fastest growing group of therapeutics, but many advanced recombinant protein moieties remain difficult to produce. Here, we identify metabolic engineering targets limiting expression of recombinant human proteins through a systems biology analysis of the transcriptomes of CHO and HEK293 during recombinant expression. In an expression comparison of 24 difficult to express proteins, one third of the challenging human proteins displayed improved secretion upon host cell swapping from CHO to HEK293. Guided by a comprehensive transcriptomics comparison between cell lines, especially highlighting differences in secretory pathway utilization, a co-expression screening of 21 secretory pathway components validated ATF4, SRP9, JUN, PDIA3 and HSPA8 as productivity boosters in CHO. Moreover, more heavily glycosylated products benefitted more from the elevated activities of the N- and O-glycosyltransferases found in HEK293. Collectively, our results demonstrate the utilization of HEK293 for expression rescue of human proteins and suggest a methodology for identification of secretory pathway components for metabolic engineering of HEK293 and CHO.
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| 46. |
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| 47. |
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| 48. |
- Mebrahtu, Aman, et al.
(författare)
-
Co-culture platform for tuning of cancer receptor density allows for evaluation of bispecific immune cell engagers
- 2024
-
Ingår i: New Biotechnology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1871-6784 .- 1876-4347. ; 79, s. 120-126
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cancer immunotherapy, where a patient's immune system is harnessed to eradicate cancer cells selectively, is a leading strategy for cancer treatment. However, successes with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) are hampered by reported systemic and organ-specific toxicities and by two-thirds of the patients being non-responders or subsequently acquiring resistance to approved ICIs. Hence substantial efforts are invested in discovering novel targeted immunotherapies aimed at reduced side-effects and improved potency. One way is utilizing the dual targeting feature of bispecific antibodies, which have made them increasingly popular for cancer immunotherapy. Easy and predictive screening methods for activation ranking of candidate drugs in tumor contra non-tumor environments are however lacking. Herein, we present a cell-based assay mimicking the tumor microenvironment by co-culturing B cells with engineered human embryonic kidney 293 T cells (HEK293T), presenting a controllable density of platelet-derived growth factor receptor β (PDGFRβ). A target density panel with three different surface protein levels on HEK293T cells was established by genetic constructs carrying regulatory elements limiting RNA translation of PDGFRβ. We employed a bispecific antibody-affibody construct called an AffiMab capable of binding PDGFRβ on cancer cells and CD40 expressed by B cells as a model. Specific activation of CD40-mediated signaling of immune cells was demonstrated with the two highest receptor-expressing cell lines, Level 2/3 and Level 4, while low-to-none in the low-expressing cell lines. The concept of receptor tuning and the presented co-culture protocol may be of general utility for assessing and developing novel bi-specific antibodies for immuno-oncology applications.
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| 49. |
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| 50. |
- Mebrahtu, Aman
(författare)
-
Platforms and strategies harnessing signaling pathways of multifactorial diseases by multispecific antibodies
- 2023
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Abstract [ENG]Proteins govern a multitude of biological functions vital to sustain life. The ability to withstand diseases development and harboring a defense against foreign pathogens is attributed to the wonders of the immune system and the proteins and cells its comprised of. Antibodies arguably stands as one of the most important protein classes involved in conferring immunity, able to recognize and engage, i.e., bind to pathogenic agents and exert their function. With the rise of engineered antibodies, the last three decades have ushered in an age of targeted therapeutics to address complex diseases with a more favorably efficacy and safety profile. However, an array of these diseases are governed by multifactorial variables often in interplay with each other, demanding a more broadened therapeutic strategy. Hence, significant efforts have been invested in the engineering of antibodies, expanding beyond a single speci- ficity to bi or multispecific molecules able to recognize more than one antigen within one and the same molecule. Naturally, this opens up for a multitude of functions i.e. mode of actions and harnessing of numerous diseases relevant pathways a multispe- cific potential drug compounds could carry out for a therapeutically beneficial out- come. The increased drug design complexity is accompanied with developability chal- lenges related to optimal drug design between the two or more binding specificities to achieve intended effect in a particular diseases’ biology setting. Moreover, the de- velopability profile of multispecific affinity proteins with regards to product yields and quality have long hampered the true translation-ability of these novel drug com- pounds into a clinical and industrial setting. The herein presented thesis aimed at highlighting the importance of a harmonized drug development pipeline taking into account aforementioned challenges and introducing toolboxes, platforms and work- flows to screen and optimize a variety of bispecific drug formats. Furthermore, we exploratively developed four unique bispecific constructs carrying out different mode- of-actions inhabiting partly rationally tailored design with respect to targeted dis- eases setting in the field of autoimmune diseases and oncology. The first bispecific molecule developed herein presented in paper I, aimed at target- ing the diseases condition in SLE from multiple fronts, with a dual blocking mode of action targeting two related ligands driving diseases progression. A lead bispecific AffiMab format chosen post screening of several candidates in molecular and in vitro systems was evaluated in ex vivo whole blood model assay demonstrating a signifi- cant effect by the dual blocking strategy to actively decrease the levels of the target ligands. The molecule warrants further evaluation in approriate in vivo models and ii ex vivo whole blood assay with patient derived material given the potential beneficial effect of the proposed therapeutic strategy based on the fundmenetal biology of the diseases and clinical observations. In paper II, a novel bispecific format able to de- liver cargo antigens to antigen presenting cells in a modular fashion was developed. Moreover, the bispecific exerts agonistic downstream signaling of targeted cells via CD40 engagement, synergistically priming immune cell activation whilst delivering the cargo antigen simultaneously. The delivery is based on an affinity interaction between a static peptide stretch synthesized with the antigen peptide sequence and a single chain attached to the structure of an anti-CD40 agonistic antibody. Employ- ment of the established adaptable drug affinity conjugate platform (ADAC) enabled the delivery of antigen cargo strictly dependent on the affinity interaction, inducing a significant anti-tumor response by expansion of antigen specific CD8+ T cells demonstrated in vivo. In paper III, we explore a HER2 and EGFR dual blocking strategy employing bis- pecific AffiMabs. The bispecifics demonstrated a significantly greater effect in an in vitro cell based assay compared to the combination treatment with the two monospe- cific molecules targeting respective antigen, indicating a potential synergistic effect conferred by the format. However, the effect of the molecule and potential benefit versus the monospecific or combination treatment need to be further evaluated in vivo. Paper IV aimed at harnessing the CD40 dendritic cell activation axis by a bispecific immune cell engager AffiMab, governing CD40 mediated activation depen- dent on the engagement with a stroma antigen upregulated in the tumor microenvi- ronment, platelet growth factor receptor B (PDGFRβ). The AffiMab demonstrated the intended mode of action in in vitro cell based model assays, and with isolated antigen presenting cells and B cells from healthy donor blood, albeit room for format optimization should be taken into consideration. The study warrants further investi- gation in appropriate in vivo models for treatment of solid tumors. In paper V we developed a modular platform to fine tune protein expression in mammalian cells on a translational level utilizing 5’UTR hairpin structure, herein coined as Regulatory elements (RgEs). Hypothesizing that “less is more” wherein a balanced expression of a proteins subunits was demonstrated to be of greater impor- tance than a maximum expression output of each component to apprehend correctly assembled protein product. The developed tool box holds possibility for multifaceted applications, and was extended in paper VI to the use in the establishment of an in vitro culture system to fine tune receptor densities on the cell surface of a defined iii cell line. The applications end-use would be functioning as an integrative part in the high throughput screening pipeline of bispecific immune cell engagers for early eval- uation and ranking of formats and access to target antigens impact on the function- ality of screened constructs. In summary, the herein presented work exploratively evaluated mode of actions, de- sign, format, and engineering of bispecific molecules to address both challenges in terms of achieving intended effect but equally important considerations and solutions to improve and evaluate product manufacturability early on in the drug development pipeline.
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