Antibody Fucosylation Lowers the FcγRIIIa/CD16a Affinity by Limiting the Conformations Sampled by the N162-Glycan

Authors:
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are largely based on the immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) scaffold and many elicit a cytotoxic cell-mediated response by binding Fc γ receptors. Core fucosylation, a prevalent modification to the asparagine(N)-linked carbohydrate on the IgG1 crystallizable fragment (Fc), reduces Fc γ receptor IIIa (CD16a) binding affinity and mAb efficacy. We determined IgG1 Fc fucosylation reduced CD16a affinity by 1.7 ± 0.1 kcal/mol when compared to afucosylated IgG1 Fc, however, CD16a N-glycan truncation decreased this penalty by 1.2 ± 0.1 kcal/mol or 70%. Fc fucosylation restricted the manifold of conformations sampled by displacing the CD16a Asn162-glycan which impinges upon the linkage between the αmannose(1-6)βmannose residues and promoted contacts with the IgG Tyr296 residue. Fucosylation also impacted IgG1 Fc structure as indicated by changes in resonance frequencies and nuclear spin relaxation observed by solution NMR spectroscopy. The effects of fucosylation on IgG1 Fc may account for the remaining 0.5 ± 0.1 kcal/mol penalty of fucosylated IgG1 Fc binding CD16a when compared to afucosylated IgG1 Fc. Our results indicated the CD16a Asn162-glycan modulates antibody affinity indirectly through reducing the volume sampled, as opposed to a direct mechanism with intermolecular glycan-glycan contacts previously proposed to stabilize this system. Thus, antibody engineering to enhance intermolecular glycan-glycan contacts will likely provide limited improvement and future designs should maximize affinity by maintaining CD16a Asn162-glycan conformational heterogeneity.
Funding Information
  • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (R01 GM115489)
  • U.S. Department of Energy (GUP-48455)
  • Roy J. Carver Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology, Iowa State University

This publication has 53 references indexed in Scilit: