Generation of a single chain antibody variable fragment (scFv) to sense selectively RhoB activation

PLoS One. 2014 Nov 3;9(11):e111034. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0111034. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Determining the cellular level of activated form of RhoGTPases is of key importance to understand their regulatory functions in cell physiopathology. We previously reported scFvC1, that selectively bind to the GTP-bound form of RhoA, RhoB and RhoC. In this present study we generate, by molecular evolution, a new phage library to isolate scFvs displaying high affinity and selectivity to RhoA and RhoB. Using phage display affinity maturation against the GTP-locked mutant RhoAL63, we isolated scFvs against RhoA active conformation that display Kd values at the nanomolar range, which corresponded to an increase of affinity of three orders of magnitude compared to scFvC1. Although a majority of these evolved scFvs remained selective towards the active conformation of RhoA, RhoB and RhoC, we identified some scFvs that bind to RhoA and RhoC but not to RhoB activated form. Alternatively, we performed a substractive panning towards RhoB, and isolated the scFvE3 exhibiting a 10 times higher affinity for RhoB than RhoA activated forms. We showed the peculiar ability of scFvE3 to detect RhoB but not RhoA GTP-bound form in cell extracts overexpressing Guanine nucleotide Exchange Factor XPLN as well as in EGF stimulated HeLa cells. Our results demonstrated the ability of scFvs to distinguish RhoB from RhoA GTP-bound form and provide new selective tools to analyze the cell biology of RhoB GTPase regulation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Antibody Affinity / immunology
  • Antibody Specificity / immunology
  • Cell Surface Display Techniques
  • Enzyme Activation
  • Gene Library
  • Kinetics
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Mutation
  • Protein Binding / immunology
  • Protein Conformation
  • Sequence Alignment
  • Single-Chain Antibodies / chemistry*
  • Single-Chain Antibodies / genetics
  • Single-Chain Antibodies / immunology
  • Single-Chain Antibodies / metabolism*
  • rhoB GTP-Binding Protein / chemistry*
  • rhoB GTP-Binding Protein / immunology
  • rhoB GTP-Binding Protein / metabolism*

Substances

  • Single-Chain Antibodies
  • rhoB GTP-Binding Protein

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Centre de Recherche de l′Institut Claudius Regaud. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.