The Use of Fluoroproline in MUC1 Antigen Enables Efficient Detection of Antibodies in Patients with Prostate Cancer

J Am Chem Soc. 2017 Dec 20;139(50):18255-18261. doi: 10.1021/jacs.7b09447. Epub 2017 Dec 12.

Abstract

A structure-based design of a new generation of tumor-associated glycopeptides with improved affinity against two anti-MUC1 antibodies is described. These unique antigens feature a fluorinated proline residue, such as a (4S)-4-fluoro-l-proline or 4,4-difluoro-l-proline, at the most immunogenic domain. Binding assays using biolayer interferometry reveal 3-fold to 10-fold affinity improvement with respect to the natural (glyco)peptides. According to X-ray crystallography and MD simulations, the fluorinated residues stabilize the antigen-antibody complex by enhancing key CH/π interactions. Interestingly, a notable improvement in detection of cancer-associated anti-MUC1 antibodies from serum of patients with prostate cancer is achieved with the non-natural antigens, which proves that these derivatives can be considered better diagnostic tools than the natural antigen for prostate cancer.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Antibodies / blood
  • Antibodies / chemistry*
  • Binding Sites, Antibody
  • Crystallography, X-Ray
  • Drug Design*
  • Humans
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation
  • Mucin-1 / chemistry*
  • Mucin-1 / genetics
  • Peptides / chemistry
  • Peptides / genetics
  • Proline / analogs & derivatives*
  • Proline / chemistry

Substances

  • Antibodies
  • Mucin-1
  • Peptides
  • fluoro-proline
  • Proline