Rational design of humanized dual-agonist antibodies

The ultralong heavy chain complementarity determining region 3 (CDR3H) of bovine antibody BLV1H12 folds into a novel "stalk-knob" structural motif and has been exploited to generate novel agonist antibodies through replacement of the "knob" domain with cytokines and growth factors. By translating this unique "stalk-knob" architecture to the humanized antibody trastuzumab (referred to hereafter by its trade name, Herceptin, Genentech USA), we have developed a versatile approach to the generation of human antibody agonists. Human erythropoietin (hEPO) or granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (hGCSF) was independently fused into CDR3H, CDR2H, or CDR3L of Herceptin using an engineered "stalk" motif. The fusion proteins express in mammalian cells in good yields and have similar in vitro biological activities compared to hEPO and hGCSF. On the basis of these results we then generated a bi-functional Herceptin-CDR fusion protein in which both hEPO and hGCSF were grafted into the heavy- and light-chain CDR3 loops, respectively. This bi-functional antibody fusion exhibited potent EPO and GCSF agonist activities. This work demonstrates the versatility of the CDR-fusion strategy for generating functional human antibody chimeras and provides a novel approach to the development of multi-functional antibody-based therapeutics.