Amifostine (WR-2721, delivered as Ethyol) is a radioprotector agent that reduces the likelihood of early and/or late biological effects by eliminating free radical particles during ionizing radiation fraction (radiotherapy). It activates in under normal tissues conditions to reduce mutation and fraction in DNA. Among 4000 prodrug compounds, amifostine is the only agent has been approved from the US Food and Drug Administration in clinical purposes. The main effective mechanisms of amifostine are based on scavenging for free radical, improving for DNA repair step and indication of cellular hypoxia. In the same time, this drug is not widely used around the world for different reasons mainly its high cost and toxicity level (lethal dose). Conjugating a monoclonal antibody with amifostine by a suitable linker is a process of Antibody Drug Conjugate producing immuno-radioprotector molecule hypothesis. Administrated molecule is an approach of targeted delivery therapy that increases the dosage uptake into particular area of treatment to minimize the dose distribution in non-targeted area in the body. In the present work, we proposed a three-compartment system model to simulate the two-pore theory pathway of an immuno-radioprotector molecule when it is crossing the physiological barriers. The model investigated its distribution and elimination in porous media (with both large and small pores) within a pharmacokinetics compartmented model approach.

Gender of animal offspring is of great interest to farmers where gender selection is achieved via the separation of male-bearing from female-bearing sperms prior to performing artificial insemination. A start-up company (Ab Biotech Inc.) has developed a technique for gender selection based on the production of an intracellular single-domain antibody (sdAb) using the bacterium Escherichia coli capable of sexing bovine sperm. The purpose of this research was to provide a recommendation to Ab Biotech Inc. for the lysis of E. coli. An efficient lysis technique was required in order to release the intracellular sdAb. In the dairy industry, sexing for female calves is preferred since male calves are not useful for the purpose of milk production. Multiple lysis techniques were tested in order to provide a feasible recommendation for Ab Biotech Inc. These techniques included high pressure homogenization, sonication, bead milling and enzymatic/chemical lysis using lysozymes and Triton X-100. Required lysis time, extent of lysis and potential operating costs were contributing factors for determining an optimal technique. The extent of lysis was determined by quantifying the total amount of released protein using SDS-PAGE densitometry. It was recommended to choose bead milling for potential process upscaling since a large amount of fractional lysis (0.70) was obtained over a short amount of lysis time (3 min) with an inexpensive ($9.50/kg) 0.3 mm mixture of glass beads.

Previous studies with conjugates containing the NH2-terminal and COOH-terminal antigenic determinants of oxidized ferredoxin from C. pasteurianum indicated a need for at least two determinants to stimulate DNA synthesis in sensitized lymphocytes. This suggested a mechanism involving cell cooperation, a possibility which has been investigated here by selectively inactivating cells binding one or the other of the determinants. Cells from immunized guinea pigs were tested in vitro for their capacity to bind antigen or to be stimulated by it before and after "antigen suicide" with radioiodinated conjugates containing the NH2-terminal or COOH-terminal determinants of oxidized ferredoxin. A microculture system for assessing antigen induced stimulation of 3H-thymidine uptake by lymphocytes was developed for this work. The data show that: 1) Lymphocytes from unimmunized guinea pigs bind both NH2-terminal and COOH-terminal determinants at a frequency of about 10-4. In immune animals the proportion of antigen binding cells increased about 4-6 fold. The frequency of cells binding the determinants depends markedly on the specific activity of antigens employed. 2) Both T and B lymphocytes bind the antigenic determinants from oxidized ferredoxin. 3) Specific inactivation of cells binding either determinant was achieved by antigen suicide with ¹²⁵I-NH₂-terminal or ¹²⁵I COOH-terminal s-BSA conjugates. Synergy occurs between the NH2-terminal binding cells and COOH-terminal binding cells in the proliferative response of sensitized lymph node cells challenged with oxidized ferredoxin in vitro. Evidence from B cell depletion studies indicates that this is a T cell-T cell interaction. / Science, Faculty of / Microbiology and Immunology, Department of / Graduate

Subcutaneous (SC) injection is a safe and effective way to administrate monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and very often valued by patients and healthcare providers alike. A SC injection offers noteworthy advantages over intravenous (IV) injections, such as lowering hospital and clinical costs. Additionally, SC injections requires a lower number administration and allows for self-administrated or caregiver-supported dosing at home, thus a reduced healthcare resource utilization and healthcare provider time. In recent years biotherapeutics have been one of the fastest growing class of drugs in the pharmaceutical industry due to effective therapeutics with target specificity and potency. Biopharmaceuticals are usually administrated through IV, intramuscular (IM) or SC injection. However, patients are not administrated drugs, they are administrated formulations containing a drug. It is also important to recognize that biopharmaceuticals that are meant for SC injection are usually formulated at an acidic (4-6) pH, which can be attained by using a variety of excipients and stabilising agents. Excipients such as sugar, salt and surfactant are commonly found in biopharmaceuticals and can be used to attain a multi-year shelf life. Additionally, biopharmaceuticals can form aggregates and this occurrence happens due to loss of a stabilizing excipient. Hence the importance of understanding how and why different excipients are or can be used in a formulation.

The aim of this master‘s thesis is to prepare a monoclonal antibody against cyclin-dependent kinase 13 (CDK13). The theoretical part focuses on antigen-antibody binding, which is essential for the use of monoclonal antibodies in the determination of CDK13 as well as the transcription that this kinase affects. This section is also devoted to Western blot and ELISA methods for detection of newly generated antibodies. Furthermore, the antibodies and the antigen definition are stated, which are later on discussed. The practical part is devoted to the preparation of antigen - its isolation and purification on a peristaltic pump. It also addresses immunization, its course, and the amount of antigen used to immunize mice. After immunization, the work focuses on fusion of sp-2 cells and splenocytes, which were first removed from the immunized mouse and purified. After the fusion alone, selection of hybridomas on HAT selection medium is mentioned, followed by detection first by ELISA and later by Western blotting. The resulting hybridomas with positive ELISA response are frozen for further testing at the Veterinary Research Institute in Brno, where the entire practical part of this thesis was carried out. These frozen hybridomas are further tested by immunoprecipitation to conclude this thesis.

Healthy tooth formation is crucially dependent on normal development of enamel and dentin. Any deviation from norm could lead to serious effects on the teeth function. Amelogenesis Imperfecta (AI) and Dentinogenesis Imperfecta (DGI) are genetically inherited conditions that affect the teeth formation. Thus is imperative to investigate the genes and proteins that contribute to these conditions. Some of the known proteins that play a role in amelogenesis include AMELOGENIN (AMLEX), KALLIKREIN 4(KLK4), FAMILY WITH SEQUENCE SIMILARITY 83H (FAM83H), WD REPEAT-CONTAINING PROTEIN 72 (WDR72) and DENTIN SIALOPHSOPHPROTEIN (DSPP). The purpose of this research project was to investigate the expression/localization pattern of gene products which are known to be causative for Amelogenesis Imperfecta and Dentinogenesis Imperfecta.The study was carried out using mouse heads which were fixed, demineralized and paraffin-embedded. Samples were then sectioned and immunohistochemical analysis was performed with various enamel/dentin protein antibodies. The data showed the following results: KLK4 showed immunoreactivity mainly in ameloblasts and in the pulp, DSPP showed immunoreactivity in dentin, in the pulp and in the epithelial cells on one location as indicated by the arrow in figure 3 of the tooth cross section, FAM83H has a faint immunoreactivity identified in the ameloblasts, WDR72 showed weak immunoreactivity in the ameloblasts and AMELX showed immunoreactivity on the enamel and the ameloblasts. In conclusion these findings were supported by previous studies and conveyed the validity of IHC experiments in locating these proteins in odontogenic tissues.

The Gram-negative pathogen bacterium Bordetella pertussis is the infectious agent causing pertussis or whooping cough. The infection is dangerous to infants, often being deadly if untreated. Since whole-cell pertussis vaccines have been replaced by acellular pertussis vaccines, pertussis has become the most prevalent vaccine-preventable disease in developed countries. Therefore, the development of a new generation of pertussis vaccines has become a high priority. Opsonophagocytic assays are one method used to assess the efficacy of new vaccines. The main objective of the thesis is to develop opsonophagocytic killing and uptake assays for the measurement of functional antibody activity against Bordetella pertussis. Neutrophils from mice and humans were isolated by three different methods and used for the assessment of different human and mouse sera in opsonophagocytic killing and uptake assays. Different experimental conditions were tested, including multiplicity of infection and serum dilutions. The opsonophagocytic uptake assay proved to discriminate between naïve and immune sera. Serum from mice vaccinated with the whole-cell pertussis vaccine enhanced opsonophagocytic uptake of B. pertussis cells into neutrophils, while serum from mice immunized with the acellular pertussis vaccine did not....

Copper exposures of 400 μg/L for 5,10 and 15 days resulted in no significant differences in antibody titers of largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides injected with Aeromonas hydrophila compared to control-injected bass. Twenty days of exposure did significantly increase titers. The control group had significantly lower antibody titers than either control-injected or copper-exposed.

In meeting the high demand for monoclonal antibodies, the chicken immunoglobulin system was exploited to generate recombinant antibodies against multiple target antigens. Following simultaneous immunisation of two chickens with a mixture of Plasmodium falciparum recombinant lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), histidine rich protein II (HRPII) and aldolase (ALDO), recombinant trypanosome variable surface glycoprotein (VSG) and malignant catarrhal fever virus (MCFV) each chicken produced egg yolk antibodies (IgY) against four of the five antigens. Using phage display technology, two single-chain variable fragment (scFv) antibody libraries, one with the immunoglobulin VH and VL chain regions joined by a single amino acid (G) and the other with a 15 amino acid flexible linker [(G4S) 3] were constructed using pooled splenic RNA. The single amino acid-linked scFv repertoire was evaluated as a source of highly specific diagnostic antibodies by panning against each of the five different antigens. After two rounds of panning, polyclonal phage ELISA showed the presence of antigen-specific phage antibodies against three (LDH, HRPII and VSG) of the five antigens. Five different anti-LDH and six different anti-HRPII scFvs were identified by sequence analysis. Evidence of high levels of antigen-driven gene conversion events was found in the framework and complementary determining regions and the VL chain pseudogene donors were identified. Stability of the selected scFvs was determined by incubation at different times and at different temperatures. The specificity and potential use of an LDH-specific scFv as a diagnostic reagent was shown in sandwich and competitive inhibition ELISAs. / Dissertation (MSc (Veterinary Science))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Veterinary Tropical Diseases / unrestricted

Is specificity an important issue regarding affinity reagents? What about the validation of affinity reagents today, is it good enough? This depends on the application and the producer of the reagent. Validation should be the most important marketing argument that can be found.Today there is a continuous growth of both the number of affinity reagents that are produced and the different types of affinity reagents that are developed. In proteomics they become more and more important in exploring the human proteome. Therefore, validated affinity reagents should be on top of every proteomic researcher’s list. How should this be accomplished?Better international agreements on how affinity reagents should be tested to be regarded as functional reagents are needed. One of the most important issues is the specificity of the affinity reagent. An international standard for which specific validation that is needed for different kinds of applications would be very useful.In this thesis, it is shown that the protein microarray platform that was established within the HPA project at KTH is a very good tool to determine the specificity of different affinity binders.In the first study, the production of mono-specific antibodies for tissue profiling in the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) project is presented. The section describing the use of protein microarrays for validation of the antibodies is relevant for this thesis. The implementation of protein microarrays in the HPA workflow was an important addition, because a deeper insight of the specificity of all the antibodies produced were now available.In a second study, bead based arrays were compared to planar protein microarrays used in the HPA project. In this study, 100 different bead identities were coupled with 100 different antigens and mixed together to generate an array. The correlation between the two types of assays was very high and the conclusion was that the methods can be used as backup to each other.A third study was a part of an international initiative to produce renewable affinity binders against proteins containing SH2 domain. Here, the HPA protein microarrays were modified to analyze different types of reagents produced at six laboratories around the world. Monoclonal antibodies, single chain fragment and fibronectin scaffolds were tested as well as mono-specific antibodies. It was shown to be possible to adapt protein microarrays used in the HPA project to validate other kinds of affinity reagents. / QC 20111117 / Development and applications of protein microarrays / The Swedish Human Proteome Resource (HPR) program