Immunology

Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) is a label-free optical technique to assess protein–protein interaction kinetics and affinities in a real-time setting. Traditionally, Biacore SPR employs a continuous film of gold to detect any change in the angle of re-emitted light when the refractive index of a ligand conjugated to the flat gold surface is altered by its interaction with a local analyte. In contrast, the Nicoya Lifesciences’ OpenSPR technology uses gold nanoparticles to detect small changes in the absorbance peak wavelength of a conjugated ligand after its engagement by an analyte. Specifically, when broadband white light is shone onto the gold nanoparticles, it produces a strong resonance absorbance peak corresponding to the refractive index of a ligand conjugated to the surface of gold nanoparticles. Upon its interaction with an analyte, however, the absorbance wavelength peak of the conjugated ligand will be changed and timely recorded as sensorgrams of dynamic ligand–analyte interactions. Thus, the improvement in the detection method (from traditional detection of changes in the angle of re-emitted light to the contemporary detection of changes in the wavelength of the absorbance peak) features OpenSPR as a cost-effective and user-friendly technique for in-depth characterization of protein–protein interactions. Here, we describe the detailed method that we used to characterize procathepsin L (pCTS-L) interactions with two putative pattern recognition receptors (TLR4 and RAGE) using the 1st generation of Nicoya Lifesciences’ OpenSPR instrument with a 1-channel detection.

Key features

• Nicoya OpenSPR is a benchtop small-size equipment that provides in-depth label-free binding kinetics and affinity measurement for protein–protein interactions in real-time fashion.

• This technology is relatively intuitive and user-friendly for scientists at any skill level.

• OpenSPR sensors employ nanotechnology to reduce the cost of manufacturing complex optical hardware and Sensor Chips, and similarly reduce the consumption of precious analyte samples.

• The manufacturer provides online training for OpenSPR (Catalog: TRAIN-REMOTE) and TraceDrawer (Catalog: TRAIN-TD) to customer scientists.

The recombinant receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the viral spike protein from SARS-CoV-1 and 2 are reliable antigens for detecting viral-specific antibodies in humans. We and others have shown that the levels of RBD-binding antibodies and SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies in patients are correlated. Here, we report the expression and purification of properly folded RBD proteins from SARS and common-cold HCoVs in mammalian cells. RBD proteins were produced with cleavable tags for affinity purification from the cell culture medium and to support multiple immunoassay platforms and drug discovery efforts.

Graphic abstract:

High-Yield Production of Viral Spike RBDs for Diagnostics and Drug Discovery

Human leukocyte antigen class I (HLA-I) molecules are a group of structurally-related cell surface proteins with a high degree of variability within the population. While only up to six variants are expressed in an individual person, the whole population contains thousands of different variants. The ability to distinguish specific variants is important in the clinic to determine compatibility during organ and bone marrow transplantation and in the laboratory to study the biological properties of individual variants. Solid phase bead arrays contain purified, individually identifiable HLA-I molecules that can be used to determine antibody specificity for individual HLA-I proteins. This method is high-throughput, highly specific, and allows for simultaneous screening of antibodies against multiple HLA-I allotypes. The beads are particularly useful for screening patient sera for the presence of donor-specific antibodies against individual HLA-I variants (which can arise during pregnancy, blood transfusion, or organ transplantation). Alternate approaches, such as the use of individual HLA-I-expressing cell lines, are more time consuming, and such cell lines are difficult to procure and standardize. The HLA-I beads are also useful to study HLA-I specificity and selectivity for other receptors and binding partners.

Non-infectious virus-like particles (VLPs) containing dengue virus (DENV) pre-membrane (prM) and envelope (E) proteins have been demonstrated to be highly immunogenic and can be used as a potential vaccine candidate as well as a tool for serodiagnostic assays. Successful application of VLPs requires abundant, and high-purity production methods. Here, we describe a robust protocol for producing DENV VLPs from transiently-transformed or stable COS-1 cells and further provide an easily adaptable antigen purification method by sucrose gradient centrifugation.

Membrane proteins such as cytokine receptors and G protein-coupled receptors can be drug targets. Recently, we have generated specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against the mouse IL-9 receptor (IL-9R) and found that IL-9R on memory B cells have critical roles in T-dependent immune response. So far, most antibodies against cell surface proteins have been generated by immunization of animals with recombinant proteins produced in Escherichia coli (E. coli) or peptides derived from the protein. However, such antibodies often fail to recognize native proteins on cell surfaces because these antigens lack posttranslational modification and natural protein conformations. To circumvent such problems, we have developed a mouse immunization method, the DNA-immunization utilizing hyaluronidase and E. coli GroEL. Herein, we report an application of the original mouse immunization method in rats to generate anti-mouse IL-9R mAbs which could react with the native form of mouse IL-9R on cell surfaces. Thus, we suggest that the DNA-immunization method is feasible for generating monoclonal antibodies against cell surface proteins in rats.

Kinetic analysis of antibodies is one of the important studies for characterization of antibodies and screening of ligands. In our recent study (Ingale et al., 2014), we compared the antigenic profiles and binding characteristics of four HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein (Env) core immunogens using multiple monoclonal antibodies by Bio-Layer Light Interferometry (BLI). This technology enables real-time analysis of interactions on the surface of a fiber optic biosensor by accurately measuring kinetic constants such as K_a, K_d, and K_D in a 96-well format.

The fluorescence-linked antigen quantification (FLAQ) assay allows a fast quantification of HIV-1 p24^Gag antigen. Viral supernatant are lysed and incubated with polystyrene microspheres coated with polyclonal antibodies against HIV-1 p24^Gag and detector antibodies conjugated to fluorochromes (Figure 1). After washes, the fluorescence of microspheres is measured by flow cytometry and reflects the abundance of the antigen in the lysate. The speed, simplicity, and wide dynamic range of the FLAQ assay are optimum for many applications performed in HIV-1 research laboratories.

Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) is widely used to generate kinetic and affinity information on specific interactions between biomolecules. This technique is label-free and monitors the binding event in real-time. It is generally used for characterization of monoclonal antibody - antigen interactions. This protocol describes specifically the use of SPR with a Biacore T100 instrument to measure the affinity of crude hybridoma samples to a protein. For that purpose an anti-IgG antibody was firstly covalently immobilized onto a CM5 chip by amide coupling (Canziani et al., 2004; Schraml and Biehl, 2012). Then the antibodies from hybridoma supernatants were captured non-covalently onto the surface via their Fc region providing an optimal analyte-binding orientation. Finally, the resulting complex was stabilized by crosslinking with EDC/NHS to avoid baseline drift during measurement and regeneration (Pope et al., 2009). Then the interaction with the protein was monitored at several concentrations and its affinity towards the immobilized antibodies was determined with the corresponding K_D obtained from classical kinetics analysis. This set-up avoids the avidity effects of the bivalent antibodies, allows the use of non-purified analytes with unknown concentrations and the specific capture of the antibodies in a similar stable covalent-orientated manner.

α2β1-integrin clustering experiment can be used to trigger internalization of α2β1-integrin. When clustering is performed with sequential administration of primary and fluorescent secondary antibodies, the entry kinetics of integrin can be followed into the cell. The idea is first to allow binding of primary antibodies (recognizing the extracellular epitope) to the α2β1-integrins and then to cluster the α2β1-integrin-bound primary antibodies together by the means of the secondary antibody. Binding is done on ice so that the α2β1-integrins will not internalize before both sets of antibodies are bound. Clustering is known to trigger α2β1-integrin internalization efficiently from the cell surface to the cytoplasm. In this protocol we used antibody-induced clustering of α2β1-integrin in order to quantitate the amount of internalized α2β1-integrins in comparison to cell surface-associated α2β1-integrin.

This protocol will result in the accurate qualitative measurement of anti-Chikungunya virus antibody (Ab) from infected mouse tissue or serum. This assay was developed by Dr. Caitlin Briggs, Arbovax, Inc. Chikungunya is a BL3 agent and should be handled in a biosafety level 3 laboratory under BL3 conditions. This protocol was used in the publication “Chikungunya virus host range E2 transmembrane deletion mutants induce protective immunity against challenge in C57BL/6J mice” (Piper et al., 2013).