BioCentury
ARTICLE | Distillery Techniques

Techniques: Multifunctional antibody fusion proteins

January 15, 2015 8:00 AM UTC

In vitro and cell culture studies suggest antibody CDR loops could be used as graft sites for cytokines to develop multifunctional antibody-based therapeutics. A bifunctional fusion protein was constructed by linking the CDR3 regions of the anti-HER2 mAb Herceptin trastuzumab to erythropoietin (EPO) and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF; CSF3). In vitro, the purified fusion protein could be concentrated to more than 10 mg/mL without forming aggregates. In EPO- and G-CSF-responsive cell lines, the fusion protein induced proliferation in a dose-dependent manner. Next steps include applying this approach to multiple therapeutically relevant fusion proteins and evaluating in vivo pharmacology...