tANCHOR fast and cost-effective cell-based immunization approach with focus on the receptor-binding domain of SARS-CoV-2

Hubert Bernauer; Anja Schlör; Josef Maier; Norbert Bannert; Katja Hanack; Daniel Ivanusic

doi:10.1093/biomethods/bpad030

tANCHOR fast and cost-effective cell-based immunization approach with focus on the receptor-binding domain of SARS-CoV-2

Biol Methods Protoc. 2023 Dec 12;8(1):bpad030. doi: 10.1093/biomethods/bpad030. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Hubert Bernauer¹, Anja Schlör^{2

3}, Josef Maier¹, Norbert Bannert⁴, Katja Hanack^{2

3}, Daniel Ivanusic⁴

Affiliations

¹ ATG:biosynthetics GmbH, Merzhausen 79249, Germany.
² new/era/mabs GmbH, Potsdam 14482, Germany.
³ Institute for Biology and Biochemistry, University of Potsdam, Potsdam 14476, Germany.
⁴ Robert Koch Institute, Berlin 13353, Germany.

Abstract

Successful induction of antibodies in model organisms like mice depends strongly on antigen design and delivery. New antigen designs for immunization are helpful for developing future therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). One of the gold standards to induce antibodies in mice is to express and purify the antigen for vaccination. This is especially time-consuming when mAbs are needed rapidly. We closed this gap and used the display technology tetraspanin anchor to develop a reliable immunization technique without the need to purify the antigen. This technique is able to speed up the immunization step enormously and we have demonstrated that we were able to induce antibodies against different proteins with a focus on the receptor-binding domain of SARS-CoV-2 and the extracellular loop of canine cluster of differentiation 20 displayed on the surface of human cells.

Keywords: CD20; GPCR; SARS-CoV-2; antibodies; immunization; tANCHOR.