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A high affinity and specificity anti-HER2 single-domain antibody (VHH) that targets trastuzumab’s epitope with versatile biochemical, biological, and medical applications

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Abstract

In the past decade, various single-domain antibodies from llamas, also known as VHH or nanobody, have been discovered with applications in tumor imaging and cancer therapy. However, the potential application of anti-HER2 VHHs as a diagnostic tool suitable for ELISA, flow cytometry, cell imaging, bispecific antibody engineering, and immunohistochemistry has not been fully elucidated. To investigate this potential, HER2 antigen was expressed in HEK293 F cells, purified, and used to immunize llama. Using phage display, anti-HER2 VHHs with high affinity and specificity were isolated, sequenced, and constructed with a Histag and c-Myc tag. The constructed anti-HER2 VHHs were then expressed in E. coli, purified, and evaluated for their use in ELISA, flow cytometry, cell imaging, and immunohistochemistry. The affinities of the anti-HER2 VHHs toward the HER2 antigen were determined using biolayer interferometry. Furthermore, the binding sites of the anti-HER2 VHHs were evaluated by epitope map** and in silico modeling and docking. Here, we report the sequence of an anti-HER2 VHH with high affinity (sub-nanomolar), specificity, and selectivity. This VHH binds to the same epitope as trastuzumab and can be utilized to generate bispecific antibodies or used as a diagnostic tool to differentiate HER2+ from HER2- antigens on plates, cells, and tissues. This discovery has broad applications in biochemical, biological, and medical sciences.

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All data supporting the findings of this study are available within the paper and its Supplementary Information.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the New Jersey Health Foundation (PC95-20), NIH/NHLBI (U01HL150852), and Rutgers HealthAdvance program. This work was also supported in part by the NIH/NCI flow cytometry (P30CA072720-5924) shared resources of the Rutgers-Cancer Institute of New Jersey (NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmaceutics, Rutgers University, Room 222, 160 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA

    Shahryar Khoshtinat Nikkhoi, Hediyeh Heydarzadeh, Ge Yang, Hajar Owji & Arash Hatefi

  2. Department of Chemistry, Biophysics Core Facility, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA

    Venu Gopal Vandavasi

  3. Rutgers Research Pathology Services, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA

    Pedro Louro & Marianne Polunas

  4. Cancer Pharmacology Program, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, USA

    Arash Hatefi

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Contributions

SKN contributed to methodology, validation, formal analysis, investigation, writing original draft, and visualization. HH, VGV, GY, PL, and MP were involved in methodology. HO contributed to manuscript writing and language editing. AH contributed to conceptualization, methodology, validation, formal analysis, resources, writing, review and editing, visualization, supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

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Correspondence to Arash Hatefi.

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Nikkhoi, S.K., Heydarzadeh, H., Vandavasi, V.G. et al. A high affinity and specificity anti-HER2 single-domain antibody (VHH) that targets trastuzumab’s epitope with versatile biochemical, biological, and medical applications. Immunol Res 72, 103–118 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12026-023-09418-9

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