Experimentally guided computational antibody affinity maturation with de novo docking, modelling and rational design.

Antibodies are an important class of therapeutics that have significant clinical impact for the treatment of severe diseases. Computational tools to support antibody drug discovery have been developing at an increasing rate over the last decade and typically rely upon a predetermined co-crystal structure of the antibody bound to the antigen for structural predictions. Here, we show an example of successful in silico affinity maturation of a hybridoma derived antibody, AB1, using just a homology model of the antibody fragment variable region and a protein-protein docking model of the AB1 antibody bound to the antigen, murine CCL20 (muCCL20).

The TGF-β inhibitory activity of antibody 37E1B5 depends on its H-CDR2 glycan.

Excessive transforming growth factor (TGF)-β is associated with pro-fibrotic responses in lung disease, yet it also plays essential roles in tissue homeostasis and autoimmunity. Therefore, selective inhibition of excessive and aberrant integrin-mediated TGF-β activation via targeting the α-v family of integrins is being pursued as a therapeutic strategy for chronic lung diseases, to mitigate any potential safety concerns with global TGF-β inhibition. In this work, we reveal a novel mechanism of inhibiting TGF-β activation utilized by an αvβ8 targeting antibody, 37E1B5.

The design and characterization of oligospecific antibodies for simultaneous targeting of multiple disease mediators.

Monoclonal antibodies are traditionally used to block the function of a specific target in a given disease. However, some diseases are the consequence of multiple components or pathways and not the result of a single mediator; thus, blocking at a single point may not optimally control disease. Antibodies that simultaneously block the functions of two or more disease-associated targets are now being developed.

Structural characterization of a human Fc fragment engineered for lack of effector functions.

The first three-dimensional structure of a human Fc fragment genetically engineered for the elimination of its ability to mediate antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity and complement-dependent cytotoxicity is reported. When introduced into the lower hinge and CH2 domain of human IgG1 molecules, the triple mutation L234F/L235E/P331S ('TM') causes a profound decrease in their binding to human CD64, CD32A, CD16 and C1q. Enzymatically produced Fc/TM fragment was crystallized and its structure was solved at a resolution of 2.