The influence of antibody engineering on Fc conformation and Fc receptor binding properties: Analysis of FcRn-binding engineered antibodies and an Fc fusion protein

Therapeutic immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies have comparatively long half-lives because the neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) binds to the IgG Fc at acidic pH in the endosome and protects IgG from degradation. To further prolong the half-lives, amino acid-substituted antibodies having high affinity to FcRn are being developed, and one such therapeutic antibody (ravulizumab) has been approved. In this study, we investigated the binding property to Fc gamma R and the conformation of seven FcRn affinity-modulated adalimumab variants to clarify the impact of the amino acid substitutions on the function and conformation of IgG Fc. The amino acid substitutions in T254-P261 caused a change in deuterium uptake into some regions of Fc in HDX-MS analysis, but those at T311, M432 and N438 did not cause such a change. The conformations around F245-L255 (FLFPPKPKDTL) were particularly influenced by the amino acid substitution in M256-P261, and the conformational changes of this region were correlated with the decrease of the affinity to Fc gamma RIIIa. Additionally, we investigated the conformational difference of Fc between a Fc fusion protein (etanercept) and a native IgG (adalimumab). Although the Fc fusion proteins were expected to have similar FcRn affinity to IgGs, the affinity of etanercept to FcRn was lower than that of adalimumab, and its half-life was shorter than those of the IgG antibodies. Differences in deuterium uptakes were observed in the two regions where they were also detected in the adalimumab variants, and the conformational differences appeared to be an important factor for the low FcRn affinity of etanercept.