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Human antibody-based chemically induced dimerizers for cell therapeutic applications

Nature Chemical Biology volume 14, pages 112–117 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Chemically induced dimerizers (CIDs) have emerged as one of the most powerful tools for artificially regulating signaling pathways in cells; however, currently available CID systems lack the properties desired for use in regulating cellular therapies. Here, we report the development of human antibody-based chemically induced dimerizers (AbCIDs) from known small-molecule–protein complexes by selecting for synthetic antibodies that recognize the chemical epitope created by the bound small molecule. We demonstrate this concept by generating three antibodies that are highly selective for the BCL-xL–ABT-737 complex compared to BCL-xL alone. We show the potential of AbCIDs for application in regulating human cell therapies by using them to induce CRISPRa-mediated gene expression and to regulate CAR T-cell activation. We believe that the AbCIDs generated in this study will find application in regulating cell therapies and that the general method of AbCID development may lead to the creation of many new and orthogonal CIDs.

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Figure 1: Design and characterization of antibody-based chemically induced dimerizers (AbCIDs).
Figure 2: Characterization of the Fab AZ1 epitope.
Figure 3: A single-chain Fab version of AZ1 can be used as an intracellular AbCID to regulate CRISPRa-mediated gene activation.
Figure 4: AZ1 can be used as an extracellular AbCID to regulate CAR T-cell activation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. Sidhu (University of Toronto) for providing the phage-displayed Fab library. We thank A. Weiss (UCSF) and T. Kadlecek (UCSF) for kindly providing the NFAT-dependent GFP reporter Jurkat cell line. Funding was provided by R01 grants from the NIH (CA191018 and GM097316) and a P41 grant from the NCI (P41 CA196276). Z.B.H. was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation and HHMI, as well as a Pathway to Independence Award from the NIH-NCI (K99CA203002). A.J.M. was supported by a predoctoral fellowship from the NSF GRFP. D.P.N. is the Connie and Bob Lurie Fellow of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation (DRG-2204-14).

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  1. Zachary B Hill and Alexander J Martinko: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA

    Zachary B Hill, Alexander J Martinko, Duy P Nguyen & James A Wells

  2. Chemistry and Chemical Biology Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA

    Alexander J Martinko

  3. Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA

    James A Wells

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Contributions

Z.B.H. and A.J.M. performed all experiments except those explicitly stated. D.P.N. designed experiments, prepared constructs, prepared cell lines, and performed experiments related to small-molecule control of CRISPRa-mediated gene expression. Z.B.H., A.J.M., and J.A.W. designed the research and analyzed the data. Z.B.H., A.J.M., and J.A.W. wrote the paper. All authors edited the paper.

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Correspondence to James A Wells.

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Z.B.H., A.J.M., J.A.W., and the University of California, San Francisco have filed a patent application related to the technology described in this manuscript. The value of this patent application may be affected by publication of this manuscript.

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Hill, Z., Martinko, A., Nguyen, D. et al. Human antibody-based chemically induced dimerizers for cell therapeutic applications. Nat Chem Biol 14, 112–117 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.2529

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