ANTIBODY THAT BINDS TO ENVELOPE GLYCOPROTEIN OF SEVERE FEVER WITH THROMBOCYTOPENIA SYNDROME VIRUS AND USE FOR SAME

Abstract

The present invention relates to an antibody which specifically binds to the envelope glycoprotein of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV), the pathogen of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), and is used in order to effectively detect or diagnosis SFTSV and treat SFTS.

Claims

1. An antibody which specifically binds to Gc or Gn that is an envelope glycoprotein of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus.

2. The antibody according to claim 1, wherein the antibody comprises a light chain complementarity determining region 1 (LCDR1) comprising any one of amino acids sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25, a light chain complementarity determining region 2 (LCDR2) comprising any one of amino acids sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 41, 42, 43, 44 and 45, a light chain complementarity determining region 3 (LCDR3) comprising any one of amino acids sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 61, 62, 63, 64 and 65, a heavy chain complementarity determining region 1 (HCDR1) comprising any one of amino acids sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30, a heavy chain complementarity determining region 2 (HCDR2) comprising any one of amino acids sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 46, 47, 48, 49 and 50, and a heavy chain complementarity determining region 3 (HCDR3) comprising any one of amino acids sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 66, 67, 68, 69 and 70, and specifically binds to Gc that is an envelope glycoprotein of SFTSV.

3. The antibody according to claim 1, wherein the antibody comprises a light chain comprising any one of amino acids sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, and a heavy chain comprising any one of amino acids sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, and specifically binds to Gc that is an envelope glycoprotein of SFTSV.

4. The antibody according to claim 1, wherein the antibody comprises a light chain comprising a sequence having 95% or more of sequence identity to any one of amino acids sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, and a heavy chain comprising a sequence having 95% or more of sequence identity to any one of amino acids sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, and specifically binds to Gc that is an envelope glycoprotein of SFTSV.

5. The antibody according to claim 1, wherein the antibody comprises a light chain complementarity determining region 1 (LCDR1) comprising any one of amino acids sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 101, 102, 103, 104 and 105, a light chain complementarity determining region 2 (LCDR2) comprising any one of amino acids sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 121, 122, 123, 124 and 125, a light chain complementarity determining region 3 (LCDR3) comprising any one of amino acids sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 141, 142, 143, 144 and 145, a heavy chain complementarity determining region 1 (HCDR1) comprising any one of amino acids sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 106, 107, 108, 109 and 110, a heavy chain complementarity determining region 2 (HCDR2) comprising any one of amino acids sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 126, 127, 128, 129 and 130, and a heavy chain complementarity determining region 3 (HCDR3) comprising any one of amino acids sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 146, 147, 148, 149 and 150, and specifically binds to Gn that is an envelope glycoprotein of SFTSV.

6. The antibody according to claim 1, wherein the antibody comprises a light chain comprising any one of amino acids sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 81, 82, 83, 84 and 85, and a heavy chain comprising any one of amino acids sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 86, 87, 88, 89 and 90, and specifically binds to Gn that is an envelope glycoprotein of SFTSV.

7. The antibody according to claim 1, wherein the antibody comprises a light chain comprising a sequence having 95% or more of sequence identity to any one of amino acids sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 81, 82, 83, 84 and 85, and a heavy chain comprising a sequence having 95% or more of sequence identity to any one of amino acids sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 86, 87, 88, 89 and 90, and specifically binds to Gn that is an envelope glycoprotein of SFTSV.

8. A nucleic acid comprising a sequence having 95% or more of sequence identity to any one of amino acids selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, and a nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide comprising a sequence having 95% or more of sequence identity to any one of amino acids selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

9. A nucleic acid comprising a sequence having 95% or more of sequence identity to any one of amino acids selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 81, 82, 83, 84 and 85, and a nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide comprising a sequence having 95% or more of sequence identity to any one of amino acids selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 86, 87, 88, 89 and 90.

10. A vector comprising the nucleic acid of claim 8, the nucleic acid of claim 9, or both of them.

11. A host cell comprising the vector of claim 10.

12. A composition for diagnosing or detecting SFTSV comprising the antibody of claim 1.

13. A kit for diagnosing or detecting SFTSV comprising the antibody of claim 1.

14. A method for diagnosing or detecting SFTSV using the antibody of claim 1.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the method uses a complex in which the antibody of claim 1 and a magnetic bead are bound.

16. A pharmaceutical composition comprising the antibody of claim 1.

17. A method for preventing or treating SFTS using the antibody of claim 1.

18. A method for prevention or treatment of SFTSV, the method comprising: administering to a subject in need thereof a therapeutically effective amount of the antibody of claim 1.

19. A method for preparing a composition for diagnosis of SFTSV, the method comprising: adding the antibody of claim 1 to the composition.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0069] FIG. 1 shows the amino acid sequences of antibody clones Ab1 to Ab10.

[0070] FIG. 2 shows the ELISA analysis result of scFv fragment antibody purified for SFTSV envelope glycoprotein Gc and Gn. These data show mean?S.D of 3 times repeated samples.

[0071] FIGS. 3A and 3B is (A) the immune fluorescence analysis result and (B) the fluorescence strength measurement of SFTSV infection. In the immune fluorescence analysis result, it was shown that Vero cells infected by SFTSV reacted with the antibody to Gn, and it was shown that Ab10 inhibited the virus infection dose-dependently. Ab10 was significantly excellent in inhibiting virus invasion compared with MAb 4-5.

[0072] FIG. 4 is a schematic figure showing the method for detecting SFTSV using an antibody-magnetic bead complex.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0073] Hereinafter, examples, etc. will be described in detail to facilitate understanding of the present invention. However, the examples according to the present invention can be modified into various other forms, and the scope of the present invention should not be construed as being limited to the following examples. The examples of the present invention are provided to describe the present invention more completely to those skilled in the art.

Example 1: Preparation of Cells

[0074] Vero cells derived from African green monkey kidneys were purchased from Korean Cell Line Bank, and cultured at 37? C. under 5% carbon dioxide circumstance with Roswell Park Memorial Institute (RPMI)-1640 medium (Welgene) supplemented with 2% heat inactivated fetal bovine serum (Gibco) and penicillin-streptomycin (Gibco).

Example 2: Preparation of Virus Strains

[0075] The SFTS virus used in the present experiment was KF358691 which was isolated from a serum sample of 63-year-old female patient who was hospitalized in Seoul National University hospital and dead in 2012 [Kim K H, Yi J, Kim G, Choi S J, Jun K I, Kim N H, et al. Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome, South Korea, 2012. Emerging infectious diseases. 2013; 19(11):1892-4.]. The isolated virus was inoculated into a single layer of Vero cells and cultured at 37? C. under 5% carbon dioxide circumstance. The virus was proliferated in Vero cells and all the experiments were performed at the third viral passage of virus culturing. Using Reed-Muench method, 50% tissue culture infection dose (TCID50) was titrated in Vero cells.

Example 3: Preparation of Recombinant SFTS Virus Glycoprotein and Single Chain Variable Fragment Antibody Fusion Protein

[0076] The amino acid sequence of SFTS virus glycoprotein used in the present experiment was previously reported [Kim K H, Yi J, Kim G, Choi S J, Jun K I, Kim N H, et al. Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome, South Korea, 2012. Emerging infectious diseases. 2013; 19(11):1892-4.]. To get a DNA strand encoding the SFTS virus glycoprotein, a human codon optimized DNA sequence corresponding to the amino acid sequence of SFTS virus glycoprotein of SEQ ID NO 171 (GenBank Accession No: AGT98506, amino acids 20-452 for Gn glycoprotein, amino acids 563-1035 for Gc glycoprotein) was synthesized (GenScript).

[0077] To overexpress recombinant SFTS virus glycoprotein Gc and Gn which were fused to human immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) Fc region (Gc-Fc, Gn-Fc) or fused to human Ig k-chain constant region (Gc-Ck, Gn-Ck), the SFTS glycoprotein-encoding gene was prepared according to the method disclosed in [Park S, Lee D H, Park J G, Lee Y T, Chung J. A sensitive enzyme immunoassay for measuring cotinine in passive smokers. Clinica chimica acta; international journal of clinical chemistry. 2010; 411 (17-18):1238-42.], [Lee Y, Kim H, Chung J. An antibody reactive to the Gly63-Lys68 epitope of NT-proBNP exhibits O-glycosylation-independent binding. Experimental & molecular medicine. 2014; 46:e114.].

[0078] First of all, a DNA sequence obtained by amplifying the Fc region of human IgG1 using 2 kinds of primers (5-GAGCCCAAATCTTGTGACAAAACTCAC-3) and (5-GGATCCTCATTTACCCGGGGACAGGGAG-3) from human marrow-derived cDNA library (Clontech Laboratories), or the synthesized constant region of human Ig k-chain (UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot: P01834.1) was modified to be positioned at the DNA 3 side of gene sequence to be added. The gene sequence to be added was cloned in a modified pCEP4 vector (Invitrogen) to enable gene addition by SfiI restriction enzyme.

[0079] The antibody clone was produced in the form of single chain variable fragment-human IgG1 Fc region fusion protein (scFv-Fc) using scFv coding DNA of each clone. Then, the vector was transfected into HEK293F cell (Invitrogen) using polyethyleneimine (Polysciences), and the transfected cell was cultured in FreeStyle? 293 expression medium containing 100 U/L penicillin-streptomycin. The overexpressed recombinant SFTS virus glycoprotein fusion protein was purified through an affinity chromatography using A/KappaSelect column and AKTA pure chromatography system (GE Healthcare).

Example 4: Antibody Library Construction and Biopanning

[0080] Peripheral blood monocytes of patient recovered from SFTS were collected using Ficoll-Paque solution (GE Healthcare). The total RNAs were separated using TRIzol reagent (Invitrogen), and cDNA was synthesized from the total RNAs using SuperScript III first strand cDNA synthesis kit with oligo(dT) priming. Using the cDNA, the phage-display library of human single chain variable fragment (scFv) was constructed using pComb3XSS phagemid vector. In addition, to select scFv clone from the library, as disclosed in [Barbas C F, Burton D R, Scott J K, Silverman G J. Phage display: a laboratory manual: CSHL Press; 2004.], 4 rounds of biopanning were performed. 3 ?g of recombinant SFTS virus glycoprotein Gc or Gn human IgG1 Fc region fusion protein (Gc-Fc, Gn-Fc) was used for coating 5?106 of magnetic Dynabeads M-270 epoxy beads (Invitrogen) according to the manufacturer's instruction for each round of biopanning. And then the beads bound with proteins were used for biopanning procedures.

Example 5: Screening of Single Chain Variable Fragment Antibody to SFTS Virus

[0081] To select an individual antibody clone which bound to SFTS virus glycoproteins, the phage clone was selected form the last round of biopanning, and scFv-display phage was prepared for phage enzyme immunoassay. Microtiter plate (Corning) was coated with 100 ng of recombinant Gc, Gn human Ig k-chain constant region fusion proteins (Gc-Ck, Gn-Ck) per well at 4? C. overnight. The well was blocked with 3% (w/v) BSA in 100 ?l of PBS at 37? C. for 1 hour, and cultured with 50 ?l of culture supernatant containing phage at 37? C. for 2 hours, and washed with 0.05% (v/v) Tween20 in 150 ?l of PBS three times. Then, 50 ml of horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-bound anti-M13 antibody distilled in a blocking buffer (1:5000) was added to each well, and then the plate was cultured at 37? C. for 1 hour. After washing with 150 ?l of 0.05% PBST, 50 ?l of 2,2-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) substrate solution (Pierce) was added to each well, and cultured at the room temperature for 30 minutes. And then the absorbance of each well was measured at 405 nm using a microplate reader (Labsystems).

Example 6: Neutralization Analysis

[0082] The SFTS virus specific scFv-Fc fusion antibody (100 ?l/ml) was serially diluted to be decreased 10 folds each by 0.01 ?l/ml. scFvs of each concentration was mixed in an equivalent volume of 100 TCID50 SFTS virus (strain KF358691) and cultured at 37? C. for 1 hours. Then, the virus-antibody mixture was transferred to the single layer of Vero cells in an 8-well confocal microscope chamber and cultured at 37? C. for 1 hour. After removing the virus-antibody mixture, samples were cultured in RPMI-1640 medium containing 2% FBS and antibiotics at 37? C. under 5% carbon dioxide circumstance. Vero cells in the 8-well confocal microscope chamber were used for immune fluorescence assay (IFA). All the experiments were performed three times and the relative neutralization effect was measured by comparing with MAb 4-5 [Xiling Guo et al. A human antibody neutralizing SFTS virus, an emerging hemorrhagic fever virus, 2013. Clin. Vaccine Immunol. 2013; 20(9):1426-32).] as a positive control and anti-newcastle disease virus (NDV) antibody as a negative control

Example 7: Immune Fluorescence Analysis (IFA) and Fluorescence Intensity Measurement

[0083] The relative neutralization effect was measured using immune fluorescence assay (IFA). Cells with or without treatment with virus-antibody mixture having or not having Ab10, MAb 4-5 (positive control), anti-NDV (negative control) were cultured for 2 days. The cells were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde in phosphate-buffer saline (PBS) for 1 hour. After blocking and penetrating slides with 0.1% triton X-100 in 1% fetal bovine serum (BSA), they were cultured together with anti-SFTS virus glycoprotein Gn clone Ab6 antibody (5 ?l/ml) at 4? C. overnight. The cells were washed and cultured with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-bound anti-human IgG (Pierce) at the room temperature for 1 hour. 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole dihydrochloride (DAPI) was used for dying a nucleus. Samples were experimented with a confocal microscope (Leica, Buffalo Grove, Ill., USA). Fluorescence signal strength was measured using computer assisted Leica application suite advanced fluorescence (LAS AF). The microscope photographs were taken in 5 regions of each slide using ?10/0.3 lens, and 3 median values were used for analysis. DAPI signal was set with 405 nm blue diode laser and Alexa 488 was adjusted with an argon ion laser.

Example 8: Production of scFv Antibody to SFTS Virus

[0084] Human scFv library was biopanned for the recombinant SFTS virus glycoprotein. After 4 rounds of panning, the antibody clone was screened by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay analysis (ELISA). It was shown that 10 clones (Ab1 to 5 for Gc and Ab6 to 10 for Gn) recognized the SFTS virus through ELISA. The ELISA analysis result was shown in FIG. 2, and the amino acid sequences of each antibody clone were shown in FIG. 1.

Example 9: Neutralization Activity of Antibody to SFTS Virus

[0085] The neutralization activity of scFv-hFc antibody purified for the SFTS virus was experimented in Vero cells. Among 10 clones (Ab1 to Ab10) experimented, Ab10 exhibited the strongest neutralization activity. The Ab10 scFv-hFc antibody (100 ?l/ml) was diluted 10 folds and titrated for 100 TCID50 SFTS virus (KF358691 strain). The immune fluorescence analysis result and fluorescence strength measurement result of SFTSV infection were shown in FIG. 3.

[0086] In the immune fluorescence analysis (IFA), the cell treated with Ab10(100 ?l/ml) exhibited the least virus infection and its neutralization activity was dose-dependent. In other words, the more the amount of MAb 10 to be treated was, the smaller the number of cells infected by SFTS virus was. Compared with MAb 4-5 (positive control), Ab10 showed significantly high neutralization activity. The negative control antibody did not exhibit the neutralization activity at all.