Isolation and characterization of recombinant single chain fragment variable anti-idiotypic antibody specific to Aspergillus fumigatus membrane protein

Aspergillus fumigatus causes the highly lethal form of invasive aspergillosis (IA). In the present study to develop a novel anti-fungal drug for protection against invasive disease, we identified a single chain fragment variable (scFv) antibody (scFv AF1) by panning against A. fumigatus membrane fraction (AMF) or HM-1 killer toxin (HM-1) neutralizing monoclonal antibody (nmAb-KT) as antigen. The key step was elution of bound phages with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) at pH 7.0 containing AMF. The specificity of soluble scFv AF1 antibody to antigens was verified by ELISA, which specifically binds to both AMF and nmAb-KT. After nucleotide sequencing, clone expression and purification by HisTrap HP affinity column, scFv AF1 showed in vitro anti-fungal activity against A. fumigatus. By SPR analysis it showed high binding affinity to nmAb-KT (Kd = 5.22 × 10−11 M). The method used to isolate scFv AF1 was a new method and we believe that it will be applicable to isolate the specific scFv against any kind of membrane protein of yeast or fungus.

Research highlights
► Recombinant scFv antibody specific to Aspergillus Fumigatus membrane protein.
► Phage display and competitive panning to select specific scFV against antigens.
► High binding affinity scFv against Aspergillis fumigatus membrane protein.