YEAST SURFACE DISPLAY OF FULL-LENGTH IGG FOR ENGINEERING MONOCLONAL AND BISPECIFIC ANTIBODIES

Abstract The single-chain variable fragment (scFv) and antigen-binding fragment (Fab) are widely used in yeast surface display for antibody engineering. However, these non-IgG antibody fragments are not always well-expressed or functional. We developed a novel approach to display full-length IgG on yeast surfaces for engineering monoclonal and bispecific antibodies. The yeast surface display of full-length IgG was generated by transforming glycoengineered yeast P. pastoris with plasmids encoding for anchor protein, heavy chains, and light chains. IgG-displaying yeast cells were incubated with the fluorophore antigen and secondary detection antibody for FACS sorting. The displayed antibody with bound antigen and detection antibody was detected by FACS sorting based on both antibody affinity and display level. FACS sorting could eliminate the deviation caused by expression levels. The yeast surface display of IgG-like bispecific antibodies was also constructed, which exhibited specific binding of two distinct fluorophore antigens in flow-cytometry analysis. Thus, our yeast surface display of full-length IgG can be used to screen light chain libraries to isolate common light chains for bispecific antibodies. To assess antigen-binding efficiency between different displaying formats, an antibody was respectively displayed as full-length IgG or Fab on the surface of yeast cells for flow-cytometry analysis. Cells displaying full-length IgG showed a higher level of fluorescence than those displaying Fab fragments, indicating that yeast surface display of full-length IgG is superior for high-throughput screening. To test the specificity of the displayed antibody, we performed a demo experiment in which TNF-binding adalimumab-displaying cells were mixed with trastuzumab-displaying cells at a 1 to 1,000,000 ratio, mimicking the immune library. After three consecutive rounds of sorting, the yeast cells with high fluorescence were plated on a selective medium and the individual antibody clones were sequenced. All ten sequenced clones were confirmed to be adalimumab, demonstrating the maintenance of genotype-phenotype linkage for library screening in yeast surface display of full-length IgG. A mutation library was also generated from the initial hit and displayed at the surface of yeast cells for the screening of higher affinity maturation antibodies by FACS. A pool of high-affinity binders was plated on a selective medium. Individual clones were analyzed by flow cytometry and sequenced to identify unique antibodies with higher affinity. In summary, full-length IgG antibodies can be displayed on the yeast cell surface, mimicking their native forms in molecular structure and biophysical properties. The technique combines the high throughput of yeast display with mammalian-cell quality control. This novel approach can be used to engineer monoclonal and bispecific antibodies for high affinity and improved developability profiles.