Antibodies raised against surface proteins are of enormous importance for diagnosis and therapy of various diseases. In the development of antibodies for these areas there is a high need for detailed characterization of the interactions of an antibody/antibody-conjugate with its antigen and Fc-receptors. Currently this binding properties are mostly evaluated by cell free assays like surface plasmon resonance and isothermal titration calorimetry. These methods have principle limitations, for example the need of recombinantly produced antigens and the fact that cellular factors which can influence the antigen-antibody interaction cannot be considered. However, the presently used methods for binding studies with intact cells have various limitations, too, e.g. the need for labeled antibodies. Biochemical labeling can influence the binding properties of the antibody and also its functional characteristics. Additionally the resulting antibody-populations can be heterogeneous relating to the amount of biochemical-labeling and the position of the labeling. Also the labeling procedure is not very reproducible. Side specific labeling methods on the other side are typically quite elaborate.

To overcome these limitations, on the example of the Fn14-specific antibody 18D1-IgG1 antibody fusion protein formats were investigated which were genetically fused with the Gaussia princeps luciferase (GpL) at different sites of the antibody. Binding studies with these variants showed, that the C-terminus of the antibody light chain (e.g. with GpL, GpL(CT-LC)) is the best suited position for genetic antibody labeling, because GpL domain tagging to this position did not or only very weakly influence the binding properties of the antibody to Fn14 and the Fcγ-receptors. Moreover, the agonistic activity of the antibody which requires oligomerization through protein G or Fcγ-receptor binding for full appearance was not affected. Similar results were obtained for the dimeric 18D1 isotypes IgG2, mIgG1 and mIgG2A. Furthermore, GpL fusion proteins of the antibodies E09-IgG1 (CD95-specific), G28.5-IgG1 (CD40-specific) und BHA10-IgG1 (LTβR-specific) showed no big differences neither in their binding properties to their antigen and Fcγ-receptors nor with respect to their functional activities, indicating a broad applicability of GpL antibody fusion proteins.

Summing up, the herein presented results reveal that C-terminal GpL-tagging of the antibody light chain is a versatile tool to characterize the binding properties of an antibody to its antigen without influencing the original properties of the antibody. The GpL antibody fusion proteins of this type are very easily manageable, show a high reproducibility, are cost-efficient and allow very sensitive cellular binding studies and could be used as tracer molecules in the future.