Construction and expression of a single chain antibody mimicing human ovarian cancer antigen CA125.

One concept for immune therapy of cancer involves induction of antigen mimic antibodies to trigger the immune response against tumor cells. Anti-idiotypic antibodies directed against the antigen-binding site of antibodies specific for tumor antigen may functionally and even structurally mimic antigen and induce anti-anti-idiotypic immune response. Monoclonal antibody WJ02 is one of such anti-idiotypic antibodies, which contains internal image of CA125. In order to improve the immunospecificity of mAb WJ02, we constructed a single chain of mAb WJ02 in Vl-linker-Vh orientation. The scFv-WJ02 could be expressed and secreted in the recombinant Pichia pastoris system. The secreted scFv protein with a molecular weight of 30 kD retained the biological activity of mAb WJ02, which was proved by a direct binding assay and inhibition experiment. Our results indicated that the scFv-WJ02 could be used as a possible tool for idiotypic therapy against ovarian cancer, which might enhance the possibility of eliminating nonspecific responses induced by mAb WJ02.