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Expansion of the amino-acid repertoire with synthetic derivatives introduces novel structures and functionalities into proteins. In this study, we improved the antigen binding of antibodies by incorporating halogenated tyrosines at multiple selective sites. Tyrosines in the Fab fragment of an anti-EGF-receptor antibody 059-152 were systematically replaced with 3-bromo- and 3-chlorotyrosines, and simultaneous replacements at four specific sites were found to cause a tenfold increase in the affinity toward the antigen. Structure modeling suggested that this effect was due to enhanced shape complementarity between the antigen and antibody molecules. On the other hand, we showed that chlorination in the constant domain, far from the binding interface, of Rituximab Fab also increased the affinity significantly (up to 17-fold). Our results showed that antigen binding is tunable with the halogenation in and out of the binding motifs.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cbic.202000429 | DOI Listing |
Macromol Biosci
September 2025
Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ankara University, Tandogan, Ankara, Turkey.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has highlighted the critical need for safe and effective vaccines. In this study, subunit nanovaccine formulations were developed using the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein encapsulated in polymeric nanoparticles composed of poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(ε-caprolactone) (PEG-PCL). Two surfactants, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and sodium cholate (SC), were evaluated during formulation via a modified water-in-oil-in-water (w/o/w) emulsion-solvent evaporation method.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArch Microbiol
September 2025
Department of Infectious Disease, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, No. 639, Zhizaoju Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai, 200011, China.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus poses a continuing global public health threat due to its outbreaks in poultry farms and zoonotic transmission from birds to humans. In the quest of effective therapeutics against H5N1 infection, antibodies with broad neutralizing activity have attracted significant attention. In this study, we employed a phage display technique to select and identify VHH antibodies with specific neutralizing activity against H5N1 hemagglutinin (HA) from an immune llama-derived antibody library.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCancer Immunol Res
September 2025
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
Antibody-based therapies have revolutionized cancer treatment but have several limitations. These include: down-regulation of the target antigen; mutation of the target epitope; or in the case of antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), resistance to the chemotherapy warhead. Since TROP2-targeted therapy with ADCs yields responses in TROP2+ solid tumors but lacks the durability observed with other immunotherapy-based approaches, we developed novel TROP2-targeting chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells as an alternative.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTransplant Direct
September 2025
Unidad Transplante de О́rganos, Centro Nacional de Microbiología, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
Extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) is a well-established, safe, and effective immunomodulatory therapy currently used in clinics to decrease T cell-mediated immunity in various disorders, including autoimmune diseases and chronic rejection in organ transplantation. Although the ECP procedure has been shown to induce apoptotic cells that are reintroduced into the patient at the end of the treatment, the precise tolerogenic mechanisms mediated by ECP are not fully understood. Previous in vitro studies have demonstrated that early apoptotic cells express annexins on their cell surface, which suppress myeloid cell activation on stimulation with bacterial lipopolysaccharide through Toll-like receptors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNAR Cancer
September 2025
Division of Oncogenomics, Netherlands Cancer Institute, 1066 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
The presentation of peptides on HLA molecules is essential to CD8 T cell responses. Here, we show that loss of uL14 significantly downregulates the expression of antigen processing and presentation (APP) components in melanoma cell lines. Peptides generated following knockdown show different characteristics, with altered peptide charge, and differences in anchor residue positions.
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