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Published online before print August 3, 2006
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* Dyax Corporation, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and
CBR Institute for Biomedical Research and Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
1 Correspondence: Dyax Corporation, 300 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA 02139. E-mail: lhuang{at}dyax.com
| ABSTRACT |
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Lß2) mediates cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix adhesions essential for immune and inflammatory responses. One critical mechanism regulating LFA-1 activity is the conformational change of the ligand-binding
L I domain from low-affinity (LA), closed form, to the high-affinity (HA), open form. Most known integrin antagonists bind both forms. Antagonists specific for the HA
L I domain have not been described. Here, we report the identification and characterization of a human antibody AL-57, which binds to the
L I domain in a HA but not LA conformation. AL-57 was discovered by selection from a human Fab-displaying library using a locked-open HA I domain as target. AL-57 Fab-phage bound HA I domain-expressing K562 cells (HA cells) in a Mg2+-dependent manner. AL-57 IgG also bound HA cells and PBMCs, activated by Mg2+/EGTA, PMA, or DTT. The binding profile of AL-57 IgG on PBMCs was the same as that of ICAM-1, the main ligand of LFA-1. In contrast, an anti-
L murine mAb MHM24 did not distinguish between the HA and LA forms. Moreover, AL-57 IgG blocked ICAM-1 binding to HA cells with a potency greater than MHM24. It also inhibited ICAM-1 binding to PBMCs, blocked adhesion of HA cells to keratinocytes, and inhibited PHA-induced lymphocyte proliferation with potencies comparable with MHM24. These results indicate that specifically targeting the HA I domain is sufficient to inhibit LFA-1-mediated, adhesive functions. AL-57 represents a therapeutic candidate for treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.
Key Words: integrin I domain ICAM-1 phage display cell adhesion
| INTRODUCTION |
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ß heterodimeric transmembrane glycoproteins, are major adhesion receptors that mediate cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions. LFA-1 (
Lß2, CD11a/CD18) is a leukocyte-specific receptor belonging to the ß2 integrin family (reviewed in ref. [1
]). It consists of two noncovalently linked subunits,
L (CD11a) and ß2 (CD18). The extracellular domain of the
L subunit contains a seven-bladed ß-propeller domain, in which an
200 amino acid sequence, the I domain, is inserted between Blades 2 and 3 [1
]. The I domain, which is the putative ligand-binding site, contains a metal ion-dependent adhesion site (MIDAS), which upon binding with a metal ion, mediates ligand binding. The ligands for LFA-1 are ICAMs, including ICAM-1, ICAM-2, and ICAM-3, which are members of the Ig superfamily and are expressed on a wide variety of somatic cells [2
, 3
]. ICAM-1 is the most biologically important ligand and is highly inducible on APC and endothelial cells in response to inflammatory cytokines [4
]. Through its interaction with ligands, LFA-1 regulates a range of immune functions, including T cell activation upon antigen recognition, T cell-mediated cytotoxicity, and leukocyte trafficking [1 , 5 , 6 ]. As a result of its critical role in inflammatory and immune responses, LFA-1 is implicated in the development of diseases such as psoriasis [7 ] and arthritis [8 ]. Efalizumab (Raptiva, Genentech, Inc., San Francisco, CA), an anti-CD11a antibody humanized from a murine mAb MHM24, has been approved for the treatment of chronic-moderate to severe plaque psoriasis (reviewed in ref. [9 ]).
The activity of LFA-1 is tightly controlled by conformational changes in the I domain [10 11 12 13 14 15 ]. On resting leukocytes, LFA-1 is maintained in an inactive, low-affinity (LA) form and becomes activated with high affinity (HA) for its ligands following stimulation [16 ]. Such conformational change and subsequently, enhanced affinity for ligand are mediated by the process of inside-out signaling, initiated by intracellular signals, following cellular activation, and transmitted from cytoplasmic to extracellular domains [17 , 18 ]. It is proposed that inside-out signaling triggers a switchblade-like opening that extends the integrin headpiece away from the plasma membrane, resulting in conformational changes of the I domain and increased affinity for ligand binding [19 ].
Structures of I domains in the
subunits of integrins reveal two different conformations: open and closed [1
, 20
21
22
]. The
L I domain has been locked in the open or closed conformation with engineered disulfide bonds [11
, 13
14
15
]. Locking the
L I domain in the open conformation causes a 9000-fold increase in affinity for ICAM-1 compared with the affinity of the inactive wild-type I domain and the locked-closed conformation and can be reversed by disulfide reduction [15
]. The binding to ICAM-1 is completely Mg2+-dependent. The affinity and kinetics of the locked-open I domain for ICAM-1 are comparable with that determined previously for the activated
Lß2 complex [23
], indicating that the
L I domain, when locked in an open conformation, is sufficient for maximal affinity-binding to ICAM-1 [15
]. When expressed on the cell surface, the locked-open I domain mediates cell adhesion as potently as maximally activated wild-type
Lß2 [13
, 14
]. The open I domain also can antagonize LFA-1-dependent adhesion in vitro, lymphocyte homing in vivo, and firm adhesion on high endothelial venules [15
]. The locked-open HA I domain therefore can be used as a target to discover antagonists such as antibodies that are specific for the activated conformation for use in diagnosis and treatment of diseases. As only the open HA I domain binds the ligand with HA, we hypothesize that antagonists specific for the open I domain would be sufficient to block LFA-1-mediated adhesive functions. Most known integrin antagonists bind the closed and open forms. Antagonists specific for the HA
L I domain have not been described.
Using phage display, we identified and characterized a fully human antibody, AL-57, which recognizes the open HA
L I domain. This antibody preferentially binds to the active conformation of LFA-1 and blocks LFA-1-mediated adhesion and lymphocyte proliferation. These results support our hypothesis that an antagonistic antibody targeting the open HA
L I domain is sufficient to inhibit LFA-1-mediated adhesive functions.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Lß2 heterodimers containing locked-open or -closed I domains were established as described previously [13
]. Cells were cultured in RPMI-1640 medium supplemented with 10% heat-inactivated FBS, 2 mM L-glutamine, 0.1 mM nonessential amino acids, puromycin (4 µg/ml), penicillin (100 Units/ml), and streptomycin (100 µg/ml). PBMCs were isolated from healthy donors by Ficoll-Paque (Amersham Pharmacia, Little Chalfont, UK; Cat. No. 17-1440-03) density gradient centrifugation and were cultured in RPMI-1640 medium supplemented with 10% heat-inactivated FBS, 2 mM L-glutamine, 0.1 mM nonessential amino acids, 1 mM sodium pyruvate, penicillin (100 units/ml), and streptomycin (100 µg/ml). Primary human keratinocytes (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA; Cat. No. 12332-011) were cultured in defined keratinocyte serum-free medium (Invitrogen; Cat. No. 10744-019). All cell cultures were incubated at 37°C in a humidified atmosphere with 5% CO2.
Phage display library selections
Selections were performed using a human Fab phagemid library FAB-300, essentially as described [24
]. Purified locked-open HA, locked-closed LA, and wild-type I domains were prepared as described [22
]. I Domains were biotinylated using the biotinylating reagent EZ-Link Sulfo-NHS-LC-Biotin (Pierce, Rockford, IL; Cat. No. 21335) following the manufacturers instructions. Biotinylated locked-open HA I domain was used as the target for selection, and biotinylated wild-type I domain was used for depletion. Biotinylated proteins were captured on streptavidin-coated magnetic Dynabeads M-280 (Dynal Biotech, Inc., Lake Success, NY; Cat. No. 112.06) before incubation with phage. In Round 1,
1012 FAB-300 phage and beads were each blocked at room temperature (RT) for 1 h with PBS containing 2% (w/v) nonfat dry milk (MPBS). The blocked phage were first depleted on biotinylated wild-type I domain immobilized on beads. Depleted phage were then incubated at RT for 1 h with biotinylated HA I domain immobilized on beads. To remove unbound phage, the beads were washed five times with MPBS containing 0.1% (v/v) Tween-20, five times with PBS containing 0.1% (v/v) Tween-20, and two times with PBS. Phage still bound on beads were allowed to infect Escherichia coli cells. Phage were rescued and underwent a second round of selection identical to the first, except the target amount of HA I domain was halved. A third round was performed identically to the second, except that after washing the beads, phage were eluted with 40 mM EDTA, and eluted phage were used to infect E. coli cells.
Screening for HA I domain binders by phage ELISA
Phage enriched from the third round of selection were screened for binders specific to the HA I domain by Fab-phage ELISA as described [24
]. In brief, Immulon 2HB 96-well plates (Thermo LabSystems, Beverly, MA; Cat. No. 3455) were sequentially coated with 100 ng per well streptavidin (Pierce; Cat. No. 21120) and 50 ng per well biotinylated HA I domain for target plates or wild-type I domain for background plates. After being blocked with 2% (w/v) nonfat milk in PBS, the coated plates were incubated with 1:2 rescued phage cultures diluted overnight for 1 h at RT. After being washed with PBS, 0.1% (v/v) Tween 20, the plates were incubated with HRP-conjugated anti-M13 antibody (Amersham Pharmacia; Cat. No. 27-9421-01) for 1 h, washed, developed with tetramethylbenzidine peroxidase substrate solution (Kirkegaard and Perry Laboratories, Gaithersburg, MD; Cat. No.50-76-03), and read at 450 nm wavelength on an ELISA plate reader.
Whole-cell ELISAs using unfixed HA and LA cells were also performed to screen for cell binders. Cells were harvested and resuspended at a density of 106 cells per ml in PBS, 4% (w/v) BSA, 0.05% (w/v) sodium azide, and 0.05% (v/v) Tween 20 with 10 mM MgCl2 or with 1 mM EDTA. Cells (100 µL; 105) per well were then seeded into a 96-well plate. Cells in each well were incubated with 109-purified phage in the same buffer. After washes, bound phage were detected using HRP-conjugated anti-M13 antibody as described above.
Cell-binding assay
Whole human IgG (hIgG1 or hIgG4) of AL-57 was reformatted from Fab as described previously [25
]. In addition, two germline amino acid substitutions were introduced in framework regions of the IgG4 light chain. AL-57 IgG1 was tested for cell-binding activity on HA and LA cells by indirect immunofluorescence staining and flow cytometric analysis. Cell staining with the murine mAb MHM24 developed by Hildreth et al. [26
] was run in parallel as a control. Using protein A beads (Amersham Biosciences; Cat. No. 17-1279-01), MHM24 was purified from hybridoma medium obtained from the Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank developed under the auspices of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and maintained by the University of Iowa, Department of Biological Sciences (Iowa City). HA and LA cells were harvested and resuspended in staining buffer [PBS, 2 mM MgCl2, 1% (w/v) BSA, and 0.05% (w/v) sodium azide]. Cells were seeded into a 96-well plate at a density of 2 x 105 cells per well and incubated with AL-57 IgG1, hIgG1 control, or MHM24 at indicated concentrations for 30 min at RT with gentle rocking. After two washes with the staining buffer, cells were incubated for 20 min at 4°C with a secondary PE-conjugated anti-hIgG (Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories, West Grove, PA; Cat. No. 709-116-149) or anti-mouse IgG (Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories; Cat. No. 715-116-150). Stained cells were then washed, resuspended in staining buffer, and measured using a GUAVA cell analyzer (GUAVA PCA-96, GUAVA Technologies Inc., Hayward, CA).
AL-57 IgG and ICAM-1 were tested for cell binding on PBMCs. Cells were harvested, washed once with Hanks balanced salt (HBS) buffer (20 mM Hepes buffer in HBSS) containing 10 mM EDTA, and then twice with HBS buffer. Cells were resuspended in HBS buffer and seeded into a 96-well plate at a density of 2 x 105 cells per well. Following centrifugation, cell pellets were resuspended in 50 µl activating buffer (HBS buffer, 10 mM MgCl2, and 2 mM EGTA) or inactivating buffer (HBS buffer, 2 mM CaCl2, and 2 mM MgCl2). For certain wells, PMA (Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO; Cat. No. P-8139) or DTT was added to a final concentration of 10 ng/ml or 500 µM, respectively. For protein kinase C (PKC) inhibition studies, cells were pretreated with 10 µM GF109203 (bisindolylmaleimide, Calbiochem, San Diego, CA; Cat. No. 203290) or 1 µM staurosporine (Sigma Chemical Co.; Cat. No. S5921) for 10 min at 37°C prior to the addition of PMA. Cells in inactivating or activating buffer were incubated for 20 min at 37°C, and then AL-57 IgG4, hIgG4 control, or MHM24 was added to each well to a final concentration of 10 µg/ml and allowed to incubate with cells for 30 min at RT with gentle rocking. Cells were then washed twice with HBS buffer containing 0.05% (w/v) sodium azide, stained with the appropriate PE-labeled secondary antibody, and measured using the GUAVA cell analyzer as described above. For ICAM-1 binding to PBMCs, the procedure was the same as for AL-57 IgG4 binding, except that a soluble multimeric ICAM-1 complex was used for staining of cells. To prepare the multimeric complex, human ICAM-1-Fc fusion protein (R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN; Cat. No. 720-IC) was biotinylated as described above, mixed at a 4:1 molar ratio with PE-labeled streptavidin (Rockland Immunochemicals for Research, Gilbertsville, PA;Cat. No. S000-08), and incubated for at least 15 min at RT. The final concentration of ICAM-1-Fc in the complex was 10 µg/ml. Cells that were incubated with the same amount of PE-labeled streptavidin alone were used as negative controls.
ICAM-1 blocking assay
AL-57 IgG1 was tested for its ability to inhibit ligand binding to HA cells and PBMCs using an ICAM-1 blocking assay. Cells were harvested, washed once with HBS buffer containing 10 mM EDTA, and washed twice with HBS buffer. Cells were seeded into a 96-well plate at a density of 2 x 105 cells per well. Following centrifugation, cells were resuspended in HBS buffer containing 10 mM MgCl2 and 2 mM EGTA or HBS buffer with 2 mM MnCl2. Myeloma hIgG (Calbiochem; Cat. No. 400120) was added to a final concentration of 75 µg/ml to block FcRs. After a 20-min incubation at 37°C, serially diluted AL-57 IgG1 or MHM24 was added to the cells. Subsequently, a soluble, multimeric ICAM-1 complex prepared as described above, was added to a final concentration of 2 µg/ml for ICAM-1-Fc. Cells were incubated for 30 min at RT, washed, resuspended in HBS buffer, 0.05% (w/v) sodium azide, and measured using the GUAVA cell analyzer.
Keratinocyte adhesion assay
The assay was carried out essentially as described previously [27
]. Subconfluent human keratinocytes were harvested, resuspended in assay medium (RPMI 1640 with 10% heat-inactivated FBS, penicillin at 100 units/ml, and streptomycin at 100 µg/ml), seeded into a flat-bottom 96-well plate at a cell density of 5 x 104 cells per well, and cultured overnight at 37°C. HA cells were harvested and labeled with calcein AM (20 µg/ml, Molecular Probes, Junction City, OR; Cat. No. C3100MP) for 45 min at 37°C. After three washes, HA cells were resuspended in assay medium, seeded into a new, 96-well plate at a cell density of 1 x 105 cells per well, and incubated with serially diluted IgG for 30 min at 4°C. Labeled HA cells were then transferred to the keratinocyte monolayer following removal of medium and incubated for 1 h at 37°C. After five washes with warm assay medium to remove unattached cells, remaining cells were photographed using fluorescent microscopy, and total fluorescence was measured using a fluorescence plate reader.
PHA-induced lymphocyte proliferation assay
Freshly isolated PBMCs were seeded into a 96-well plate at a density of 5 x 104 cells per well and incubated in culture medium with a Mg2+ concentration adjusted to the physiological concentration of 0.8 mM in the presence of PHA (Sigma Chemical Co.; Cat. No. L4144) at 1 µg/ml. Serially diluted AL-57 IgG1 or MHM24 was added into each well. Cells were incubated for 3 days at 37°C and analyzed for proliferation with a BrdU chemiluminescent immunoassay (Roche Applied Science, Indianapolis, IN; Cat. No. 1 669 915) following the manufacturers instructions.
| RESULTS |
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L I domain of LFA-1
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AL-57 IgG specifically binds to the activated and HA form of LFA-1
The cell-binding specificity of AL-57 IgG1 was determined using flow cytometric analysis with HA and LA cells, which were incubated with serially diluted AL-57 IgG1 or hIgG1 control followed by staining with a PE-conjugated secondary anti-hIgG. As shown in Figure 2
, AL-57 IgG1 bound to HA cells in a dose-dependent manner but did not bind to LA cells. The hIgG1 control did not bind to HA or LA cells. Our results indicated that AL-57 IgG1, like its Fab-phage counterpart, bound specifically to the HA I domain of the
L subunit. For comparison, the binding activity of the murine mAb MHM24 was tested in parallel on HA and LA cells. In contrast to AL-57 IgG1, MHM24 showed nonselective binding to both cell types (Fig. 2)
. The difference in MFI of AL-57- and MHM24-stained cells was likely a result of the use of different PE-labeled secondary antibodies, anti-hIgG-PE for AL-57 and anti-mouse IgG-PE for MHM24.
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Lß2 with a locked-open HA I domain, we tested whether AL-57 IgG also bound to the HA form of wild-type
Lß2 expressed on PBMCs. To minimize background caused by FcR binding, AL-57 IgG4 was used in the binding assay. Before staining with the antibody, PBMCs were incubated with inactivating buffer containing 2 mM CaCl2 and 2 mM MgCl2 or activating buffer containing 10 mM MgCl2 and 2 mM EGTA. It is known that Ca2+ at high concentrations inhibits the HA I domain [23
, 29
, 30
], whereas Mg2+ and EGTA induce a HA form of LFA-1 [29
, 31
, 32
]. Consistent with its specificity for the HA I domain, AL-57 IgG4 showed no binding to PBMCs in inactivating buffer but showed some binding in activating buffer (Fig. 3A
). We next tested AL-57 IgG4 binding on PBMCs after treatment with PMA, which has been shown to induce a HA form of LFA-1 [18
, 33
]. As shown in Figure 3A
, PMA treatment significantly enhanced AL-57 IgG4 binding in activating buffer, further supporting our findings that AL-57 IgG4 preferentially bound to the HA form of LFA-1. PMA induced AL-57 binding in inactivating and activating buffer; however, PMA in activating buffer induced more AL-57 binding than in inactivating buffer, likely as a result of the additive effect of PMA and MgCl2/EGTA (data not shown). A hIgG4 control antibody did not show any binding to PBMCs under any conditions tested (data not shown).
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10% of LFA-1 molecules on the surface of agonist-stimulated cells. These results further support that AL-57 is able to detect affinity up-regulation of LFA-1. As a selective binder to the HA form of LFA-1, AL-57 IgG could serve as a reporter for the HA conformation of LFA-1. We thus tested AL-57 IgG4 binding to PBMCs following treatment with DTT. This reducing agent has been shown to modulate the adhesive state of several different integrins including LFA-1 [34 35 36 37 ]. It is proposed that DTT stimulates LFA-1/ICAM-1 adhesive interactions by promoting conformational changes in LFA-1 or patterns of organization on the cell membrane [37 ]. Our results demonstrated that as with PMA, DTT significantly enhanced AL-57 IgG4 binding in activating buffer (Fig. 3A) , indicating that DTT also induced the HA form of LFA-1.
Unlike AL-57 IgG4, which bound only to activated LFA-1 on PBMCs, MHM24 bound to nearly l00% of the cells in inactivating or activating buffer, and its binding was not affected by PMA or DTT treatment (Fig. 3A) . These results with PBMCs were consistent with those from HA and LA cells, confirming that MHM24 was a nonselective binder to LFA-1.
Ligand binding to LFA-1 depends on the affinity state of LFA-1. The affinity of the
L I domain for ligand can be 200 nM for the locked-open or activated wild-type I domain and 2 mM for the locked-closed or inactive wild-type I domain [1
]. As AL-57 bound to the HA I domain only, we hypothesized that AL-57 and the primary ligand ICAM-1 would exhibit a similar binding profile on PBMCs. To increase sensitivity for detection of ligand binding, we used a multimeric ICAM-1 complex formed by mixing biotinylated human ICAM-1-Fc fusion protein and PE-labeled streptavidin at a 4:1 ratio. As shown in Figure 3B
, multimeric ICAM-1 exhibited some binding to PBMCs in activating buffer but not in inactivating buffer, and its binding was enhanced significantly by PMA or DTT treatment. These results indicated that AL-57 IgG might behave similarly to ICAM-1 in binding to LFA-1.
PMA-enhanced LFA-1 adhesiveness is mediated through activation with PKC [17 ]. To determine if PMA-induced binding of AL-57 or ICAM-1 was mediated by PKC, PBMCs were incubated with activating buffer in the presence of known PKC inhibitor GF109203X at 10 µM or staurosporine at 1 µM prior to PMA treatment. As shown in Figure 4 , PMA-induced AL-57 IgG4 or multimeric ICAM-1 binding on PBMCs was blocked by either of these inhibitors. The binding signal on PKC inhibitor-treated cells was comparable with the level on cells without any PMA treatment. These results indicated that PMA-induced binding of AL-57 or ICAM-1 on PBMCs was mediated by an inside-out signaling pathway involving PKC.
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AL-57 IgG blocks ICAM-1 binding to LFA-1
AL-57 and the ligand ICAM-1 showed specific binding to the HA form of LFA-1. Thus, it was possible that AL-57 would compete with ligand binding to the HA I domain. To test this, we performed ICAM-1 blocking assays with AL-57 IgG1. Ligand binding in the presence or absence of AL-57 IgG1 was measured using a soluble multimeric ICAM-1 complex. As shown in Figure 5A
, AL-57 at 4 µg/ml (26.8 nM) completely blocked multimeric ICAM-1 binding to HA cells, as did the positive control antibody MHM24, whereas the hIgG1 control did not demonstrate any inhibition of ICAM-1 binding. The IC50 values of AL-57 and MHM24 for blocking ICAM-1 binding on HA cells were determined by staining cells (2x105 per sample) with ICAM-1-Fc (2 µg/ml) in multimeric complex with PE-labeled streptavidin in the presence of serially diluted IgGs. On HA cells, AL-57 demonstrated an IC50 value of 0.4 ± 0.2 nM, lower than that of MHM24 (1.9±1.2 nM), based on three independent experiments (Fig. 5B
and 5C)
. On human PBMCs, AL-57 also inhibited multimeric ICAM-1 binding with an IC50 value of 0.6 ± 0.4 nM, comparable with that of MHM24 (0.3±0.2 nM), based on four independent experiments (Table 1
).
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| DISCUSSION |
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L subunit as target. The library selection was performed by first depleting the library on the isolated, inactive wild-type I domain and then panning against the locked-open HA I domain. A specific isolate, AL-57, was identified by Fab-phage ELISA. AL-57 bound to HA cells but not LA cells, and the binding was dependent on the divalent cation, as no binding was observed in the absence of Mg2+. The locked-open HA I domain contains only one cation molecule at the MIDAS. Hence, the AL-57 binding site likely involves the metal ion at the MIDAS. In contrast to AL-57, the murine mAb MHM24 did not distinguish between the HA and LA I domains, as it bound to HA and LA cells. Thus, AL-57 is selective for the locked-open HA I domain. AL-57 also recognized an engineered, disulfide-locked intermediate affinity (IA) L161C/F299C
L mutant I domain [22
] but with much low affinity (Kd of 1.57.9 µM),
200-fold lower than that of the HA I domain (Kd of 739 nM; M. Shimaoka, Minsoo Kim, E. H. Cohen, Wei Yang, Nathan Astrof, Dan Peer, A Salas, Audrey Ferrand, T. A. Springer, manuscript in preparation). Like AL-57, ICAM-1 binds the IA I domain with IA (Kd of 39 µM), lower than that of the HA I domain (Kd of 150360 nM) [22
]. Thus, AL-57 and ICAM-1 share the same characteristics in binding to LFA-1, namely, the progressive increases in affinity to IA and HA I domains, little binding to the LA I domain, and the Mg2+ dependence for binding, indicating that AL-57 is a ligand mimetic.
Consistent with its selectivity to the locked-open HA I domain, AL-57 IgG4 bound to wild-type LFA-1 on PBMCs in the presence of Mg2+ and EGTA, known to induce a HA form of LFA-1 but not in the presence of millimolar concentrations of Ca2+, known to maintain LFA-1 in a LA state. It is remarkable that AL-57 IgG4 binding in the presence of Mg2+ and EGTA was enhanced significantly by a transient treatment with PMA. The binding profile of the ligand ICAM-1 on PBMCs was the same as that of AL-57 IgG4. These results verified further that AL-57 IgG, like the ligand ICAM-1, bound to the activated HA form of LFA-1. The PMA-induced, dramatic increase in AL-57 IgG4 and ICAM-1 binding indicated that phorbol ester stimulation induced HA LFA-1, rather than just receptor clustering, as suggested by previous reports [29
, 43
, 44
]. Our data with PMA were consistent with the detection of increased affinity for ligand after PMA stimulation, as measured by a sensitive ligand displacement assay using radiolabeled Fab fragments against the
L subunit [18
]. These results also support recent findings derived from quantitative analysis of LFA-1 distribution with fluorescence resonance energy transfer and high resolution fluorescence microscopy that PMA activates adhesiveness, predominantly through affinity rather than valency regulation [33
]. It is observed that activators that promote adhesion through LFA-1 cannot change LFA-1 clustering in the absence of ligand [33
]. Monomeric binding of ICAM-1 induces profound, conformational changes in LFA-1 but not alterations in clustering, whereas multivalent binding of ICAM-1 induces substantial microclustering [33
]. PMA has been shown to increase the LFA-1 diffusion on the cell surface, which results from the release of cytoskeletal constraints on LFA-1 [45
]. The released LFA-1 does not facilitate ligand-independent clustering but rather, ligand-dependent accumulation of LFA-1 at the substrate contact interface, resulting in adhesion strengthening [33
].
As a specific antibody targeting the HA form of LFA-1, AL-57 could serve as a reporter for the HA conformation of LFA-1. For example, we tested AL-57 IgG4 binding to PBMCs following treatment with DTT, known to modulate the adhesive state of LFA-1 [37 ]. How DTT stimulates LFA-1/ICAM-1 adhesive interactions is not clear. It is proposed that DTT promotes conformational changes in LFA-1 or patterns of organization on the cell membrane [37 ]. By using AL-57 IgG as a reporter, we clearly demonstrated that like PMA, DTT also induced a HA form of LFA-1.
AL-57 and ICAM-1 bound preferentially to the active HA conformation of the I domain and required Mg2+ for binding. The structure of the I domain bound to ICAM-1 reveals an open ligand conformation in which Mg2+ in the I domain directly coordinates with Glu-241 of ICAM-1 [22 ]. As a result of the common features shared by AL-57 and ICAM-1, it is possible that AL-57 would bind to the MIDAS of the I domain and that an acidic residue existing in a CDR loop of AL-57 could coordinate directly with Mg2+ in the MIDAS in a similar manner as Glu-241 of ICAM-1. Indeed, sequence analysis revealed two Asp residues in CDR3 of AL-57; one of the Asp residues was retained in most of the isolates identified from an affinity-matured heavy chain CDR3 phage library, which was made using the AL-57 background (data not shown). Future structural analysis of the I domain bound with AL-57 should reveal useful information for understanding the mechanisms by which AL-57 selectively binds to the active conformation of LFA-1.
AL-57 is the first specific antagonist known to target the active conformation of the
L I domain of LFA-1. Its specificity toward the HA I domain makes AL-57 a useful research tool for detecting the HA form of LFA-1, investigating the conformational transition of LFA-1 on cells during cell migration and spreading, and studying the effects of specific inhibition of the active form of LFA-1 in vitro and in vivo.
In addition to serving as a research tool for in vitro and in vivo studies, the AL-57 antibody represents a therapeutic candidate for treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. AL-57 IgG functionally inhibited ligand ICAM-1 binding to HA cells and PBMCs, adhesion of HA cells to keratinocytes, and PHA-induced lymphocyte proliferation with in vitro potencies, at least as great as MHM24, which bound nonselectively to inactive and active forms of LFA-1. As LFA-1 plays a crucial role in many immune functions, nonselective inhibition of active and inactive LFA-1 may lead to a compromise of its physiological roles, such as host defense and thus, to unwanted immune suppression. Conversely, selective inhibition of active LFA-1 by HA conformation-specific antibody AL-57 may have more favorable pharmacokinetics, require lower and/or less frequent dosing for treatment, and result in fewer potential side-effects.
Besides the identification and characterization of a fully human antibody with therapeutic potential, our study validates the use of an engineered locked-open I domain for discovering antibodies, which not only specifically recognize the physiologically activated HA integrin receptor on the cell surface but also block ligand binding and integrin receptor-mediated, biological functions. It is challenging to use a peptide or protein domain to screen for antibodies that can recognize a physiological counterpart. Our phage display-based method clearly succeeded in identifying a conformation-specific, anti-LFA-1 antibody. This method can be applied to other integrins for identifying such specialized antibodies.
| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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3 Current address: Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139. ![]()
4 Current address: Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, 243 Charles Street, Boston, MA 02114. ![]()
Received November 11, 2005; revised May 19, 2006; accepted June 6, 2006.
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Lß2 is sufficient for strong adhesive function when locked in the open conformation with a disulfide bond Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98,2387-2392
Lß2 I domain with disulfide bonds reveals functional relationships among integrin domains Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98,2393-2398
L I domains with high affinity and antagonist activity in vivo Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98,6009-6014
2ß1 Cell 101,47-56[CrossRef][Medline]
L I domain and its complex with ICAM-1 reveal a shape-shifting pathway for integrin regulation Cell 112,99-111[CrossRef][Medline]
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}L{ß}2 J. Cell Biol. 167,1241-1253This article has been cited by other articles:
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D. Peer, P. Zhu, C. V. Carman, J. Lieberman, and M. Shimaoka Selective gene silencing in activated leukocytes by targeting siRNAs to the integrin lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1 PNAS, March 6, 2007; 104(10): 4095 - 4100. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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