Complementarity determining region residues aspartic acid at H55, serine at H95 and tyrosines at H97 and L96 play important roles in the B72.3 antibody-TAG72 antigen interaction.

Abstract

Structural analysis derived from the crystallographic study of the chimeric B72.3 antibody illustrated some major atomic interactions between complementarity determining region (CDR) residues. For example, hydrogen bonds are formed between H35/H95, L50/H97, H53/H55 and H96/L96 respectively. These CDR residues may play important roles in the B72.3-TAG72 (antibody-antigen) interaction either by direct interaction with the TAG72 antigen or by maintaining a CDR loop conformation through atomic interactions between CDR residues. In order to confirm these assumptions, we altered these CDR residues by site-directed mutagenesis and determined binding affinities of these mutant chimeric antibodies for the TAG72 antigen in a solid-phase radioimmunoassay. We found that H55, H95, H97 and L96 are important CDR residues for the B72.3-TAG72 interaction. Single amino acid substitutions of aspartic acid and serine by alanine at H55 of CDR2 and at H95 of CDR3 respectively and of tyrosine by phenylalanine at H97 and L96 of CDR3, significantly reduced the binding affinity for the TAG72 antigen by 20-, 8-, 16- and 45-fold respectively. Therefore, this study reveals some of the requirements for maintaining the integrity of the B72.3 antibody combining sites.