Abstract
Protein engineering allows the generation of hybrid polypeptides with functional domains from different origins and therefore exhibiting new biological properties. We have explored several permissive sites in Escherichia coli β-galactosidase to generate functional hybrid enzymes displaying a mouse scFv antibody fragment. When this segment was placed at the amino-terminus of the enzyme, the whole fusion protein was stable, maintained its specific activity and interacted specifically with the target antigen, a main antigenic determinant of foot-and-mouth disease virus. In addition, the antigen-targeted enzyme was enzymatically active when bound to the antigen and therefore useful as a reagent in single-step immunoassays. These results prove the flexibility of E. coli β-galactosidase as a carrier for large-sized functional domains with binding properties and prompt the further exploration of the biotechnological applicability of the scFv enzyme targeting principle for diagnosis or other biomedical applications involving antigen tagging. © 2002 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 115-118 |
Journal | FEBS Letters |
Volume | 533 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2 Jan 2003 |
Keywords
- Antigen
- Protein engineering
- Recombinant antibody
- Single-chain Fv
- β-Galactosidase