3a, b, fifth check details dark gray column from the left). By contrast, with the exception of the condition in which it was co-expressed with cytFkpA, most of the XPA23 Fab expressed with or without chaperones was non-functional, as evidenced by the low amount of binding in the target-specific ELISA (ELISA
absorbance at 450 nm was less than 0.1). The amount of functional murine 83-7 Fab expressed in the periplasm, assessed by target ELISAs (Fig. 3c, dark gray columns) was improved when co-expressed with cytFkpA (Fig. 3c, fifth set of columns from the left). Since the above results demonstrated that co-expression with cytFkpA and, in very few cases, cyt[Skp + FkpA] provided the greatest benefit for Fab secretion, we evaluated the effects of these chaperones on two additional human kappa Fabs, BM7-2 and CF1, which bind a human tyrosine kinase and Tie-1, respectively. Total and functional amounts of BM7-2 or CF1 Fab in the periplasm were measured by expression (Fig. 4, light gray columns) and target (Fig. 4, dark gray columns) ELISAs, respectively. The cytFkpA chaperone construct improved the functional BM7-2 and CF1 Fab expression (Fig. 4a and b, respectively), but to a lesser extent than
XPA23 or ING1 Fabs. Unlike kappa light chains, lambda light chains do not contain framework proline residues in the cis conformation. Since in addition to its catalytic proline GS-7340 mw isomerization activity, FkpA functions as a molecular chaperone, we measured levels of total and functional gastrin-specific Fabs, C10, D1, and E6, which contain lambda light chains, co-expressed with cytFkpA or cyt[Skp + FkpA].
The benefit of cytFkpA expression on secretion of functional Fabs containing lambda light chains was less apparent than with kappa Fabs in that C10, D1, and E6 Fab periplasmic expression did not benefit from co-expression with cytFkpA ( Fig. 5). It appears that simultaneous expression of cytSkp and cytFkpA Adenosine triphosphate decreased the expression of C10, D1, and E6 Fabs ( Fig. 5) possibly due to negative influence of Skp expression in the bacterial cytoplasm. Fab expression also can be quantified by SPR by first capturing Fab fragments with anti-human Fab antiserum immobilized on a Biacore sensor chip. For this study, we tested levels of Fab in the periplasm upon co-expression with the chaperone constructs that generated more substantial expression improvements based on ELISA results. To quantify Fab levels, a standard curve was generated using a control human Fab; periplasmic Fab concentrations were estimated based on SPR resonance units (RUs) in relation to the standard curve (see Table 1). Since the kappa Fab fragments used in this study share identical constant regions, the affinity of the secondary antibodies used to detect the Fabs should be very similar. Cytoplasmic expression of cytFkpA resulted in 5.3 to 7.6-fold and 5.