Impact of Drug Conjugation on Thermal and Metabolic Stabilities of Aglycosylated and N-Glycosylated Antibodies.

N-linked glycosylation is one of the most common and complex posttranslational modifications that govern the biological functions and physicochemical properties of therapeutic antibodies. We evaluated thermal and metabolic stabilities of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) with payloads attached to the C'E loop in the immunoglobulin G (IgG) Fc CH2 domain, comparing the glycosylated and aglycosylated Fc ADC variants. Our study revealed that introduction of small-molecule drugs into an aglycosylated antibody can compensate for thermal destabilization originating from structural distortions caused by elimination of N-linked glycans. Depending on the conjugation site, glycans had both positive and negative effects on plasma stability of ADCs. The findings highlight the importance of consideration for selection of conjugation site to achieve desirable physicochemical properties and plasma stability.

High-Throughput Platform to Identify Antibody Conjugation Sites from Antibody-Drug Conjugate Libraries.

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are a therapeutic modality that traditionally enable the targeted delivery of highly potent cytotoxic agents to specific cells such as tumor cells. More recently, antibodies have been used to deliver molecules such as antibiotics, antigens, and adjuvants to bacteria or specific immune cell subsets. Site-directed mutagenesis of proteins permits more precise control over the site and stoichiometry of their conjugation, giving rise to homogeneous chemically defined ADCs. Identification of favorable sites for conjugation in antibodies is essential as reaction efficiency and product stability are influenced by the tertiary structure of immunoglobulin G (IgG). Current methods to evaluate potential conjugation sites are time-consuming and labor intensive, involving multistep processes for individually produced reactions. Here, we describe a highly efficient method for identification of conjugatable genetic variants by analyzing pooled ADC libraries using mass spectrometry. This approach provides a versatile platform to rapidly uncover new conjugation sites for site-specific ADCs.

Ectopic expression of LIM-nebulette (LASP2) reveals roles in cell migration and spreading.

LIM-nebulette (LASP2) is a small focal adhesion protein and a member of the nebulin family of actin binding proteins. This recently identified splice variant of the nebulette locus is widely expressed and highly enriched in neuronal tissue. Other than that LIM-nebulette is a focal adhesion protein and interacts with zyxin, nothing is known about its function. Given that LIM-nebulette has an identical modular organization and overlapping tissue distributions to that of LASP1, we have analyzed the role of LIM-nebulette in comparison with that of LASP1. We find that LIM-nebulette is a dynamic focal adhesion protein that increases the rate of attachment and spreading of fibroblasts on fibronectin coated surfaces. Additionally, LIM-nebulette is recruited from the cortical cytoskeleton in non-motile cells to focal adhesions at the leading edge of stimulated cells. In confluent cultures of HeLa and NIH3T3 cells, LIM-nebulette co-localizes with alpha-catenin in putative adherens junctions, whereas LASP1 is devoid of these areas. Interestingly, overexpression of LIM-nebulette in PC6 cells inhibits neurite outgrowth in response to growth factors. Collectively, our data indicate that LIM-nebulette and LASP1 have distinct roles in the actin cytoskeleton.

Targeting of nebulin fragments to the cardiac sarcomere.

Nebulin, a vertebrate skeletal muscle actin binding protein, plays an important role in thin filament architecture. Recently, a number of reports have indicated evidence for nebulin expression in vertebrate hearts. To investigate the ability of nebulin to interact with cardiac myofilaments, we have expressed nebulin cDNA fragments tagged with green fluorescent protein (GFP) in chicken cardiomyocytes and PtK2 cells. Nebulin fragments from both the superrepeats and single repeats were expressed minus and plus the nebulin linker. Nebulin fragment incorporation was monitored by fluorescent microscopy and compared with the distribution of actin, alpha-actinin and titin. Expression of nebulin N-terminal superrepeats displayed a punctate cytoplasmic distribution in PtK2 cells and cardiomyocytes. Addition of the nebulin linker to the superrepeats resulted in association of the punctate staining with the myofibrils. Nebulin C-terminal superrepeats plus and minus the linker localized with stress fibers of PtK2 cells and associated with the cardiac myofilaments at the level of the Z-line. Expression of the single repeats plus and minus the nebulin linker region resulted in both a Z-line distribution and an A-band distribution. These data suggest that N-terminal superrepeat nebulin modules are incapable of supporting interactions with the cardiac myofilaments; whereas the C-terminal nebulin modules can. The expression of the N-terminal or C-terminal superrepeats did not alter the distribution of actin, alpha-actinin or titin in either atrial or ventricular cultures.