Innate antibody catalysis

Catalysis by antibodies is often assumed to require immunization with artificial haptens, which are proposed to stimulate adaptive immune processes and enable the development of catalytic sites with the ability to bind the transition state. Contrary to this assumption, we describe here a serine protease-like catalytic triad in an antibody light chain raised by immunization with vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), the structure and function of which is inherited via a germline V-L gene. The serine protease mechanism was evident from loss of the catalytic activity by site directed mutagenesis at a framework region residue Asp1 (present study) and at two complementarity determining region residues Ser27a and His 93 (Gao, Q-S., Sun, M., Pees, A., Paul, S., 1995. Site-directed mutagenesis of proteolytic antibody light chain. J. Mel. Biol. 253, 658-664). All three catalytic residues (Ser27a, His93, Asp1) are also present in the germline counterpart of the mature V-L gene, but the mature and germline sequences differ by four amino acids remote from the catalytic site. Reversion mutations were introduced at these amino acids in the mature light chain (His27 d:Asp, Thr28e:Ser, Ile34:Asn, Gln96:Trp; Kabat numbering, germline encoded residues shown second), generating the germline configuration of the protein. The germline light chain expressed peptidase activity, determined by assaying the cleavage of VIP and a synthetic pro tease substrate, Pro-Phe-Arg-Methylcoumarinamide. Differences between the kinetic constants for the mature and germline light chains were marginal. Diisopropylfluorophosphate, a serine protease inhibitor, blocked the peptidase activity of the germline light chain, suggesting the presence of the catalytic triad in a functional state. Like the mature light chain, the germline protein preferentially cleaves peptide bonds on the C-terminal side of basic residues. We conclude that the catalytic activity of certain antibodies is an innate function, originating over the course of phylogenetic evolution of the V-L genes, as opposed to somatic processes. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.