Selection and characterization of nanobodies for the early detection of ovarian cancer biomarkers Lan-Huong Tran, PhD Student - Hasselt University 4th NanoBio Surfaces and Interfaces in Health Care and Science 2019 Workshop, May 17th 2019, Potsdam, Germany
Ovarian cancer Epithelial ovarian tumors 90-95%, postmenopausal Increases with age Stromal tumors Benign or malignant, age 0-20 Non-aggressive in the adult form Germ cell tumors Benign or malignant, age 10-30 3% of OC Diagnosed in the early stages Tend to grow rapidly
Biomarkers Problems Aims of this project Cancer Antigen 125 (CA125) Human Epididymis protein 4 (HE4) Secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI) Progranulin (PGRN) Problems Specificity & sensitivity: still poor at early stage (50% for stage I ) Aims of this project Attempt to develop more efficient biosensor detection strategies based on bioconjugation between Nbs and the biomarkers HE4, SLPI, PGRN To modifify nanobodies (Nbs) targeting biomarker by site-specific functionalization using Expressed protein ligation (EPL)
Expressed protein ligation - EPL
Expressed protein ligation - EPL Copper-Catalyzed Azide-Alkyne Cycloaddition (CuAAC) Click Chemistry
Materials and Methods Human Epididymis protein 4 (HE4) : 13 strains Available strains of Nbs from Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB): 35 strains in total Human Epididymis protein 4 (HE4) : 13 strains Secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI) : 10 strains Progranulin (PGRN) : 12 strains All strains: Nb-His
An overview of experiment Glycerol stock Pre-culture 37oC Transformation Pre-culture O/N, 37oC Plasmid extraction +IPTG Binding affinity test Expression O/N, 37oC SDS-PAGE on gel 2nd purification, SEC 1st purification, IMAC
Kinetics of Nbs – Binding affinity tests Indirect Elisa Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) KD = koff / kon Epitope mapping koff kon
Results - Elisa A B C
Results – SPR
Coupling of alkynated Nbs to PEG-N3 using click chemistry reaction 15 kDa 25 kDa M: Marker 1: HE4-LEY-CA 2: HE4-LEY 3: SLPI-LEY-CA 4: SLPI-LEY 5: PGRN-LEY-CA 6: PGRN-LEY
Summary Best strains of Nbs from HE4, SLPI and PGRN were chosen The selected nanobodies were successfully site-specifically alkynated at their C-terminus using the Expressed protein ligation (EPL) technique and were coupled to an azidified PEG counterpart using “click”-chemistry.
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Posibilities
Epitope mapping