Human and mouse CD137 have predominantly different binding CRDs to their respective ligands

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to CD137 (a.k.a. 4-1BB) have anti-tumor efficacy in several animal models and have entered clinical trials in patients with advanced cancer. Importantly, anti-CD137 mAbs can also ameliorate autoimmunity in preclinical models. As an approach to better understand the action of agonistic and antagonistic anti-CD137 mAbs we have mapped the binding region of the CD137 ligand (CD137L) to human and mouse CD137. By investigating the binding of CD137L to cysteine rich domain II (CRDII )and CRDIII of CD137, we found that the binding interface was limited and differed between the two species in that mouse CD137L mainly combined with CRDII and human CD137L mainly combined with CRDIII.