humMR1, a highly specific humanized single chain antibody for targeting EGFRvIII

Production of an efficient humanized single chain antibody is reported here to specifically target EGFRvIII, a truncated receptor expressed in a wide variety of human cancers. CDR loops of MR1, a phage display-derived murine single chain antibody developed against this mutant receptor, were grafted on human frameworks that had been selected based on similarity to MR1 in terms of two distinct parameters, variable domain protein sequence and CDR canonical structures. Moreover, two point mutations were introduced in CDR-H2 and CDR-H3 loops of the humanized antibody to destroy its cross-reactivity to wild-type EGFR. The resultant antibody, referred to as humMR1, was found by MTT assay, ELISA and western blot techniques to be highly specific for EGFRvIII. The affinity of this antibody for EGFRvIII-specific 14-amino acid synthetic peptide and HC2 cells were measured to be 1.87 × 10(10) and 2.17 × 10(10)/M respectively. This humanized antibody leads to 78.5% inhibition in proliferation of EGFRvIII-overexpressing cells.