Epitope and Paratope Mapping by HDX-MS Combined with SPR Elucidates the Difference in Bactericidal Activity of Two Anti-NadA Monoclonal Antibodies

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Documents

  • Fulltext

    Final published version, 3.27 MB, PDF document

Characterization of antigen-antibody interactions is crucial for understanding antibody-mediated protection against pathogens, biopharmaceutical development, as well as evaluation of the immune response post vaccination. Bexsero is a multicomponent vaccine against Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B in which one of the key vaccine antigens is Neisserial adhesin A (NadA), a trimeric coiled-coil protein. Two NadA-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) isolated from Bexsero-vaccinated individuals have been shown to have similar binding affinity and appear to recognize a similar antigen region, yet only one of the mAbs is bactericidal. In this study, we use hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS) to perform an in-depth study of the interaction of the two mAbs with NadA antigen using a combined epitope and paratope mapping strategy. In addition, we use surface plasmon resonance (SPR) to investigate the stoichiometry of the binding of the two mAbs to NadA. While epitope mapping only identifies a clear binding impact of one of the mAbs on NadA, the paratope mapping analyses shows that both mAbs are binding to NadA through several complementarity determining regions spanning both heavy and light chains. Our results highlight the advantage of combined epitope and paratope mapping HDX-MS experiments and supporting biochemical experiments to characterize antigen-antibody interactions. Through this combined approach, we provide a rationale for how the binding stoichiometry of the two mAbs to the trimeric NadA antigen can explain the difference in bactericidal activity of the two mAbs.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry
Volume32
Issue number7
Pages (from-to)1575–1582
ISSN1044-0305
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Number of downloads are based on statistics from Google Scholar and www.ku.dk


No data available

ID: 271541594