Affinity maturation of anti-TNF-alpha scFv with somatic hypermutation in non-B cells

Activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) is required for the generation of antibody diversity through initiating both somatic hypermutation (SHM) and class switch recombination. A few research groups have successfully used the feature of AID for generating mutant libraries in directed evolution of target proteins in B cells in vitro. B cells, cultured in suspension, are not convenient for transfection and cloning. In this study, we established an AID-based mutant accumulation and sorting system in adherent human cells. Mouse AID gene was first transfected into the human non-small cell lung carcinoma H1299 cells, and a stable cell clone (H1299-AID) was selected. Afterwards, anti-hTNF-α scFv (ATscFv) was transfected into H1299-AID cells and ATscFv was displayed on the surface of H1299-AID cells. By 4-round amplification/flow cytometric sorting for cells with the highest affinities to hTNF-alpha, two ATscFv mutant gene clones were isolated. Compared with the wild type ATscFv, the two mutants were much more efficient in neutralizing cytotoxicity of hTNF-alpha. The results indicate that directed evolution by somatic hypermutation can be carried out in adherent non-B cells, which makes directed evolution in mammalian cells easier and more efficient.