Isolation and characterization of a monoclonal anti-quadruplex DNA antibody from autoimmune "viable motheaten" mice

A cell line that produces an autoantibody specific for DNA quadruplex structures has been isolated and cloned from a hybridoma library derived from 3-month-old nonimmunized autoimmune, immunodeficient "viable motheaten" mice. This antibody has been tested extensively in vitro and found to bind specifically to DNA quadruplex structures formed by two biologically relevant sequence motifs. Scatchard and nonlinear regression analyses using both one- and two-site models were used to derive association constants for the antibody-DNA binding reactions. In both cases, quadruplexes had higher association constants than tripler and duplex molecules. The anti-quadruplex antibody binds to the quadruplex formed by the promoter-region-derived oligonucleotide d(CGCG(4)GCG) (K-a = 3.3 x 10(6) M-1), and has enhanced affinity for telomere-derived quadruplexes formed by the oligonucleotides d(TG(4)) and d(T(2)G(4)T(2)G(4)T(2)G(4)T(2)G(4)) (K-a = 5.38 x 10(6) and 1.66 x 10(7) M-1, respectively). The antibody binds both types of quadruplexes but has preferential affinity for the parallel four-stranded structure. In vitro radioimmunofilter binding experiments demonstrated that purified anti-DNA quadruplex antibodies from anti-quadruplex antibody-producing tissue culture supernatants have at least 10-fold higher affinity for quadruplexes than for tripler and duplex DNA structures of similar base composition and length. The antibody binds intramolecular DNA triplexes formed by d(G(4)T(3)G(4)T(3)C(4)) and d(C(4)T(3)G(4)T(3)G(4)), and the duplex d(CGCGCGCGCG)(2) with an affinities of 6.76 x 10(5), 5.59 x 10(5), and 8.26 x 10(5) M-1, respectively. Competition experiments showed that melted quadruplexes are not effective competitors for antibody binding when compared to native structures, confirming that the quadruplex is bound structure-specifically. To our knowledge, this is the first immunological reagent known to specifically recognize quadruplex structures. Subsequent sequence analysis demonstrates homologies between the antibody complementarity determining regions and sequences from Myb family telomere binding proteins, which are hypothesized to control cell aging via telomeric DNA interactions. The presence of this antibody in the autoimmune repertoire suggests a possible linkage between autoimmunity, telomeric DNA binding proteins, and aging.