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Method Article
Here, we present a protocol to produce a bispecific antibody GPC3-S-Fab in Escherichia coli. The purified GPC3-S-Fab has potent cytotoxicity against GPC3 positive liver cancer cells.
This protocol describes the construction and functional studies of a bispecific antibody (bsAb), GPC3-S-Fab. bsAbs can recognize two different epitopes through their two different arms. bsAbs have been actively studied for their ability to directly recruit immune cells to kill tumor cells. Currently, the majority of bsAbs are produced in the form of recombinant proteins, either as Fc-containing bsAbs or as smaller bsAb derivatives without the Fc region. In this study, GPC3-S-Fab, an antibody fragment (Fab) based bispecific antibody, was designed by linking the Fab of anti-GPC3 antibody GC33 with an anti-CD16 single domain antibody. The GPC3-S-Fab can be expressed in Escherichia coli and purified by two affinity chromatographies. The purified GPC3-S-Fab can specifically bind to and kill GPC3 positive liver cancer cells by recruiting natural killer cells, suggesting a potential application of GPC3-S-Fab in liver cancer therapy.
Monoclonal antibodies are now broadly used for cancer treatment1. Due to the flexibility of antibodies, various antibody-based formats have been actively explored. Compared with monoclonal antibodies, bsAbs have two different antigen binding modules, enabling them to recognize two different targets simultaneously and efficiently trigger the recruitment of immune effector cells to target and kill tumor cells2.
Current recombinant bsAb formats can be generally assigned to two classes: Fc-containing bsAbs and bsAbs without an Fc region. Compared with Fc-containing formats that are mostly produced in mammalian cells, bsAbs without an Fc region have the advantages of smaller sizes, are more readily produced in microorganism expression systems, and can penetrate tumor tissues more efficiently3.
bsAbs without an Fc region are commonly formed by linking individual binding moieties, such as single-chain variable fragments (scFvs) or Fabs3. Without the stabilizing domains, bsAbs based on scFv fragments often have compromised thermal stability, low solubility, or an increased potential for aggregation4,5. In contrast, Fab-based bsAbs are more stable due to the heterodimerization of the CH1 and CL in the native Fab moiety4,6.
Variable domain from heavy-chain-only antibodies (VHHs, also referred to as single domain antibodies) are the active antigen-binding fragment of natural heavy chain antibodies7. VHHs have the characteristics of high affinity, specificity of conventional IgGs8, low immunogenicity, and high yields in bacterial expression9. Compared with Fv fragments, VHHs have higher thermal stability10. Compared with Fab moieties, VHHs have smaller sizes due to the lack of CH1 and CL. Thus, S-Fab, the bsAb format obtained by linking the Fab with a single domain antibody, VHH, was designed and studied for its anti-tumor effects11,12.
In this study, the construction of GPC3-S-Fab by linking the Fab of hGC3313 with an anti-CD16a VHH14 was described. The GPC3-S-Fab can be efficiently produced by periplasmic expression in Escherichia coli (E. coli). Functional studies of GPC3-S-Fab suggested that GPC3-S-Fab is a promising strategy for liver cancer therapy. Thus, the advantages of GPC3-S-Fab over alternative techniques with applicable references to previous studies include easy production and purification, and more stable bsAbs.
Mammalian expression systems and prokaryotic expression systems have been used to express various formats of BsAbs. In contrast to mammalian expression systems, E. coli-based protein expression systems have many benefits, including high yields, low cost and labor-saving, the ease of genetic manipulations, and high transformation efficiency15. For bsAbs expression in E. coli, there are two basic strategies: expression in the cytoplasm and expression in the periplasm between the cytoplasm and outer cell membranes15. Compared to the reducing environment of cytoplasm, the periplasm is a more oxidizing environment, which promotes the correct folding and co-expression of proteins16. Correct folding plays a key role in solubility, stability and function generation of bsAbs. Therefore, a signal sequence pelB was added to the N-terminus of the S-Fab to direct secretion to the periplasm of E. coli17. To ensure correct folding, solubility, thermal stability, and conformational stability, reducing the complexity and the size of an antibody is frequently employed16. The S-Fab format consists of one Fab and one VHH, which is expressed very well in bacterial systems likely due to the simple structure and small size.
GPC3 was chosen in this GPC3-S-Fab bispecific antibody format. Glypican-3 (GPC3) is a member of the heparin sulfate (HS) proteoglycan family that is anchored to the cell surface through glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)18. GPC3 is overexpressed in 70% of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cases, which account for the majority of liver cancers19,20,21,22. Because GPC3 is rarely expressed in normal tissues, GPC3 has been proposed as a potential target for HCC. Multiple mouse mAbs have been produced against GPC3. However, only GC33 exhibited limited anti-tumor activity 22, and it failed to exhibit clinical efficacy in patients. In this study, GPC3-S-Fab was shown to be able to recruit NK cells to kill GPC3 tumor cells14.
To recruit NK cells, anti-CD16 VHH was used. CD16a is a low affinity IgG receptor, expressed mainly on natural killer (NK) cells, macrophages, monocytes and some subtypes of T cells. It is involved in antibody-dependent cell cytotoxicity (ADCC) by NK cells23. Human NK cells can be categorized into two types, CD56-CD16+ and CD56+CD16-. In contrast to CD56+CD16− NK cells, CD56-CD16+ NK cells can release higher levels of perforin and granzyme B and thus present a strong cytotoxicity24. Kupffer cells (KCs), expressing CD16a, are the resident macrophages in liver. Kupffer cells play an important role in the suppression of liver cancer25. Thus, bsAbs targeting CD16a may be a more promising strategy than engaging T cells against liver cancer.
All of the procedures including human blood collection were approved by the Sun Yat-Sen University Ethics Committee.
1. GPC3-S-Fab Design Strategy
2. Transformation and Culture
3. GPC3-S-Fab Periplasmic Purification
4. SDS-PAGE and Western-blotting Analysis
5. Gel Filtration Analysis
6. Flow Cytometry Analysis
7. Cytotoxic Assays
GPC3-S-Fab purification
GPC3-S-Fab was purified from E. coli by a two-step affinity purification, first with Ni-NTA-agarose, followed by IgG-CH1 affinity purification. After the two-step affinity purification, GPC3-S-Fab was purified to homogeneity with the two chains close to 1:1 (Figure 2A). The presence of both VH-CH1-CD16 VHH and VL-CL polypeptides can be identified by ...
In this study, we present a strategy to construct a new format of bsAbs, GPC3-S-Fab, which can recruit NK cells targeting GPC3 positive tumor cells. The S-Fab is based on the natural Fab format by adding an anti-CD16 VHH11,12. Compared with the bsAbs containing Fc region, GPC3-S-Fab can easily be produced in the periplasm of bacteria on a large scale.
Using the expression and purification strategy described in the protocol, we obtained...
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
This work was financially supported by the R&D Plan of Guangdong Province (PR China) (2016A050503028).
Name | Company | Catalog Number | Comments |
Shaking incubator | Thermo Fisher | MAXQ 4000 | |
Shaking incubator | Zhicheng | ZWYR-D2402 | |
Centrifuge | Cence | GL-10MD | |
Centrifuge | Beckman coulter | Avanti j-26S XPI | |
Centrifuge | eppendorf | 5810R | |
Ultraviolet spectrophotometer | Thermo Fisher | Nanodrop | |
Analytical polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis apparatus | Mini-PROTEAN® Tetra | Bio-rad | |
Trans-blot apparatus | Criterion | Bio-rad | |
Imaging system | Bio-rad | chemidoc tm XRS+ | |
Fast Protein Liquid chromatogram | GE Healthcare | AKTA avant | |
GF column | GE Healthcare | 28-9909-44 Superdex 200 Increase 10/300 GL | |
Flow Cytometer | Beckman coulter | FC500 | |
Centrifuge | eppendorf | 5702R | |
Envision plate reader | TECAN | Infinite F50 | |
Anti His-tag | eBioscience | 14-6657-82 | |
anti-Flag-tag | Sigma | F1804 | |
anti-human(H&L)-488 | A11013 | Invitrogen | |
Anti-mouse IgG HRP-linked antibody | Cell Signaling | 7076S | |
Ni-NTA-Agarose | Tribioscience | TBS9202-100 | |
IgG-CH1 affinity resin | Thermo Fisher | 194320005 | |
Ficoll-Plaque Plus | GE Healthcare | 17-1440-03 | |
NK cell enrichment kit | Stemcell | 19055 | |
Magnet | Stemcell | 18000 | |
CCK8 kit | Dojindo | CK04 | |
DMEM | Gibco | C11995500CP | |
RPMI-1640 | Gibco | C11875500CP | |
Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) | Sigma | F2442 | |
Trypsin | Gibco | 15050-057 | |
Penicillin-Streptomycin | Gibco | 15140-122 | Cell culture |
Standard marker | Sigma Aldrich | MWGF200 | Gel filtration |
Isopropyl-b-D-thio-galactopyranoside (IPTG) | VWR chemicals | VWRC0487-100G | |
Dialysis tubing | Sigma Aldrich | D0655-100FT | |
Knanamycine | VWR | VWRC0408-100G | |
Ampicillin | VWR | VWRC0339-100G | |
Tryptone | Thermo Fisher | LP0042B | |
Yeast Extract | Thermo Fisher | LP0021B | |
NaCl | Sangon Biotech | A100241 | |
Trizma base | Sigma Aldrich | T6791-1KG | |
EDTA | Sigma Aldrich | V900106 | |
Glycine | aladdin | A110752-500g | |
KCl | aladdin | P112134-500g | |
MgCl | Sigma Aldrich | V900020 | |
Agar | Sangon Biotech | A505255-0250 | |
Potassium Phosphate, Monobasic Anhydrous (KH2PO4) | VWR | 7778-77-0 | |
Sodium Phosphate, Dibasic, Anhydrous (Na2HPO4) | VWR | 7558-79-4 | |
2-Mercaptoethanol | VWR | 60-24-2 | |
Phenylmethyl Sulfonyl Fluoride (PMSF) | VWR | 329-98-6 | |
Lysozyme | Sigma Aldrich | L6876-25G | |
Coomassie Brilliant Blue R250 | VWR | VWRC0472-50G | |
Bromophenol blue | Sangon Biotech | A500922-25G | |
Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) | VWR | VWRC0332-100G | |
Glycerol | Sigma Aldrich | V900122 | |
100mm x 20mm plastic dish | Corning | 430167 | |
25cm2 flask | Corning | 430639 | |
96 well cell culture cluster | Corning | 3599 | |
Sucrose | Sangon Biotech | A610498-0005 | |
CHO | the Type Culture Collection of the Chinese Academy of Sciences | GNHa 3 | |
MHCC-97H | the Type Culture Collection of the Chinese Academy of Sciences | SCSP-528 | |
HepG2 | the Type Culture Collection of the Chinese Academy of Sciences | TCHu 72 | |
Huh7 | the Type Culture Collection of the Chinese Academy of Sciences | TCHu182 | |
Hep3B | the Type Culture Collection of the Chinese Academy of Sciences | TCHu106 | |
NK92 | ATCC | CRL2408 |
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