1993 Volume 113 Issue 2 Pages 174-179
A method was developed to evaluate the association constant at physiological pH (pH 7.5) between a lysozyme and the Fab fragment derived from anti-lysozyme monoclonal antibody 37-7, which was immobilized to the adsorbent for HPLC. Comparison of the association constants between lysozymes and the immobilized Fab fragment indicated that mAb 37-7 recognized the prominently exposed regions (hills and ridges) around His15 of hen lysozyme, but His15 itself was not directly involved in the binding with mAb 37-7. Moreover, the epitope was confirmed by the reactivity of His15 with monoiodoacetic acid in the presence of mAb 37-7. The association constant of 15-carboxymethylated histidine lysozyme (15CM lysozyme) with the immobilized Fab fragment was smaller by oneseventh than that of 15-carboxamidated histidine lysozyme, though the side chains introduced were almost identical in size. From the pH titration of 15CM lysozyme with 13C-enriched carboxyl group by use of 13C-NMR, the pKa of the introduced carboxyl group was evaluated to be 5.06. Since the carboxyl group was fully ionized under the conditions of measurement (pH 7.5), electrostatic repulsion was found to disturb severely the association between mAb 37-7 and hen lysozyme. Moreover, it was demonstrated that, because of the high reproducibility of measurement, the immobilized Fab fragment could detect subtle differences in the surface structure of lysozymes.
