Human monoclonal Fab fragments from a combinatorial library prepared from an individual with a low serum titer to a virus

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Bender, Eckhard | Pilkington, Glenn R. | Burton, Dennis R.^;

Affiliations: Departments of Immunology and Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA

Correspondence: [] Correspondence and reprint requests to: Dennis R. Burton, Department of Immunology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.

Abstract: An IgG1kα Fab library was generated on the surface of phage beginning with bone marrow RNA from a healthy 22-year-old human donor. The donor had been immunized to measles in his early childhood but had only a low serum titer to a measles antigen preparation. The resulting library of approximately 107 clones was panned against the measles antigen preparation and three positive Fab-producing clones identified by ELISA. One of the Fabs was found to be specific to measles and to bind with high apparent affinity (108 M−1). The other two bind with lower affinity and show marked cross-reactivity with a number of other antigens. They possess heavy chains derived, with extensive somatic modification, from the single member gene family VH6. The study indicates that both high-affinity specific antibodies and lower affinity polyreactive antibodies can be derived from the library approach under appropriate conditions.

Keywords: Human monoclonal antibodies, measles, phage display

DOI: 10.3233/HAB-1994-51-201

Journal: Human Antibodies, vol. 5, no. 1-2, pp. 3-8, 1994