Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.118, No.25, 5881-5890, 1996
Anti-Cocaine Catalytic Antibodies - A Synthetic Approach to Improved Antibody Diversity
Catalytic antibodies are potential therapeutic agents for drug overdose and addiction, and we previously reported the first such artificial enzymes to degrade cocaine. However, as described herein, these catalytic monoclonal antibodies (Mab’s) were found to have nearly identical complementarity-determining regions (CDR’s). Such limited diversity among catalytic antibodies of similar specificity has been reported previously and poses a problem since the capacity of any single group of homologous catalytic antibodies to yield one of high activity, whether through repetitive screening of hybridomas or through antibody mutagenesis, is unpredictable. One strategy to increase the diversity of the immune response to an analog would be to vary the tether site of the immunogenic conjugate thereby exposing unique epitopes for immunorecognition. We now report the syntheses of three immunogenic conjugates of a transition-state analog (TSA) of cocaine benzoyl ester hydrolysis which have identical phosphonate monoester core structures but varying tether sites for attachment to carrier protein : TSA 1 at the methyl ester, TSA 2 at the 4’-phenyl position, and TSA 3 at the tropane nitrogen. : TSA 1 at the methyl ester, TSA 2 at the 4’-phenyl position, and TSA 3 at the tropane nitrogen.
Keywords:BENZOIC-ACID;HUMAN-PLASMA;METABOLITES;MUTAGENESIS;GENERATION;INHIBITION;HYDROLYSIS;SUBSTRATE;SEQUENCE