CDR identification, epitope mapping and binding affinity determination of novel monoclonal antibodies generated against human apolipoprotein B-100

In-house generated mAbs to apolipoprotein B-100 (apoB-100) clones hLDL-E8, hLDL-2D8 and hLDL-F5 were extensively studied to determine their complementarity-determining regions (CDRs), binding epitopes and affinity. RT-PCR revealed that all mAbs consisted of kappa light chains and gamma heavy chains. DNA sequencing and bioinformatic analysis showed that the variable gene and protein sequences of their CDRs shared over 50 % identity with the existing databases. The 3D structures of the mAb variable fragments (Fv) with a QSQE score above 0.7 were constructed using the SWISS-MODEL platform. The structural accuracy was confirmed by Ramachandran plots, with 99 % of amino acid residues falling within acceptable regions. Thrombolytic cleavage of apoB-100 and Western blot analysis demonstrated that hLDL-E8 and hLDL-F5 specifically bind to the T3 fragment (aa 1297–3249), whereas hLDL-2D8 binds to the T4 fragment (aa 1–1297). These findings were supported with epitope-binding assays using inhibition ELISA, which indicated that hLDL-E8 binds at different epitopes from hLDL-2D8 and has some overlap with hLDL-F5. Lastly, the binding affinity of the mAbs was examined by indirect ELISA. The average affinity constants (K_aff) for mAbs hLDL-2D8, hLDL-E8 and hLDL-F5 are 1.51 ± 0.69 × 10⁹ Mol⁻¹, 7.25 ± 3.56 × 10⁸ Mol⁻¹ and 4.39 ± 2.63 × 10⁶ Mol⁻¹, respectively. Additionally, the behavior of the antibodies in the dose-response curve revealed that hLDL-F5 may recognize two epitopes of apoB-100 or have very low binding affinity. In contrast, hLDL-2D8 and hLDL-E8 each recognize a single epitope. These findings provide information that will be useful when selecting mAbs for both laboratory and clinical research purposes.