δqp cdna : to express domain 4 of β c on the cell surface we cloned the activated β c mutant , hβ c δqp , with an extracellular deletion removing domains 1 to 3 ( d &# 39 ; andrea et al 1996 ), into the eukaryotic expression vector pcdna3 ( invitrogen ). cytokines and cell lines : recombinant human il - 3 and gm - csf were produced in e . coli as described ( barry et al 1994 , hercus et al 1994b ). recombinant human il - 5 was purified from e . coli by bresatec ( adelaide , south australia ). recombinant epo was purchased from johnson & amp ; johnson ( new jersey ). tnfα was a gift from dr . j . gamble in the hanson centre for cancer research . cos cells were transfected with receptor cdna as described previously ( woodcock et al 1994 ). choβ c and choδqp cells stably expressing either full length β c or domain 4 respectively were generated by electroporation ( hercus et al , 1994a ). tf1 . 8 cells were a gift from dr j . tavernier from university of gent , belgium . mo7e cells , a human megakaryoblastic cell line , were from dr p crozier , aukland , new zealand . human eosinophils were purified from the peripheral blood of slightly eosinophilic volunteers via sedimentation through dextran and centrifugation through a discontinuous density gradient of hypertonic metrizamide , as previously described ( vadas et al 1979 ). eosinophils were more than 92 % pure . human neutrophils and monocytes were purified from peripheral blood as described previously ( lopezet al , 1990 ) with more than 95 % purity . generation of anti - β c moabs : balb / c mice were immunized intraperitonally with 1 × 10 7 cos cells transfected with β c or δqp expression constructs . δqp constructs express substantially only domain 4 of the extracellular domains of β c . the immunizations were repeated 4 times at two - weekly intervals . four weeks after the final immunization , a mouse was boosted with 2 × 10 6 cos transfectants intravenously . three days later , splenocytes were harvested and fused with ns - 1 myeloma cells as previously described ( sun et al 1996 ). hybridoma supernatants were screened on cho β c or cho δqp cells by flow cytometry , with untransfected cho cells as a control . all antibodies were from single hybridoma clones as selected by limiting dilution method . moabs were purified from ascites fluid or hybridoma supernatant by a protein a sepharose column . the isotypes of moabs were tested with a mouse moab isotyping kit ( boehringer mannheim , germany ). fab fragments were generated using a fab preparation kit ( pierce , rockford , ill .) following the supplied protocol . immunofluorescence : freshly purified neutrophils , eosinophils , monocytes , or cho and cos cell transfectants ( 5 × 10 5 ) were incubated with 50 μl of hybridoma supernatant or 0 . 25 mg of purified moab for 45 - 60 min at 4 ° c . cells were washed twice and then incubated with fitc - conjugated rabbit anti - mouse ig ( silenus , hawthorn , victoria , australia ) for another 30 - 45 min . cells were then washed and fixed before analysing their fluorescence intensity on an epics - profile ii flow cytometer ( courter electronics ). two colour staining was carried out by additional incubation with another moab directly coupled to pk . ligand binding assay : il - 3 and gm - csf were radio - iodinated by the iodine monochloride method ( contreras 1983 ). 125 i - il - 5 was purchased from dupont nen ( north sydney , nsw , australia ). binding assays were performed as previously described ( lopez et al 1989 ). briefly , 1 - 2 × 10 6 tf - 1 . 8 cells were preincubated with bion - 1 fab fragments , anti - β c or control moabs over a concentration range of 0 . 06 to 4200 nm for 1 hour . radio - labelled ligand was then added and incubated for a further two hours before the cells were separated from free label by spinning through fcs . counts associated with the resulting cell pellets were determined by counting on a γ counter ( cobra auto gamma ; packard instruments co , meridien , conn .). non - specific binding was determined for each ligand by binding in the presence of a 200 fold excess of unlabelled cytokine . moab binding assay : moabs were radio - iodinated by the chloramine - t method ( mcconahey 1980 ). saturation binding studies were performed by incubating 2 × 10 6 tf1 cells in a range of concentrations of radio - labelled antibodies in the presence or absence of excess unlabelled antibodies . the binding affinity of each anti - β c moab to its antigen was determined by scatchard transformation ( scatchard 1949 ) and analysed with the ligand program ( munson and rodbard , 1980 ). competition binding experiments were set up by preincubating the tf1 . 8 cells with a range concentration of il - 3 , or gm - csf , or il - 5 prior to adding radio - labelled moab qp1 for two hours as per ligand binding assay . epitope analysis was determined by testing the capacity of each unlabelled moab to compete for the binding of each radio - labelled moab to the β c on cos cell transfectant . co - immunoprecipitation of α and β chains and the β c phosphorylation assays : m07e cells were surface labelled with 125 i by the lactoperoxidase method as described previously ( walsh and crumpton , 1977 ). the labelled cells incubated in either medium containing il - 3 ( 100 ng / ml ) alone or il - 3 together with the moab qp1 , 1c1 ( 0 . 5 mg / ml ) or 7g3 ( 30 mg / ml ) for 5 min . cells were lysed in lysis buffer consisting of 137 mm nacl , 10 mm tris - hcl ( ph 7 . 4 ), 10 % glycerol , 1 % nonindet p40 with protease and phosphatase inhibitors ( 10 mg / ml leupeptin , 2 mm phenylmethlysulphonyl fluoride , 10 mg / ml aprotonin and 2 mm sodium vanadate ) for 30 min at 4 ° c . followed by centrifugation of the lysate at 10 , 000 × g for 15 min to remove cellular debris . the lysate was precleared with mouse - ig - coupled sepharose beads for 18 h at 4 ° c . and incubated with anti - il - 3ra , anti - β c moab beads for 2 hr at 4 ° c . the beads were washed 6 times with lysis buffer and immunoprecipitated proteins were separated by sds - page under reducing condition . the immunoprecipitated proteins were detected by a phosphorlmager ( molecular dynamics , sunnyvale , calif .). the gels were then reprobed by western blotting analysis with an anti - phosphotyrosine moab , 3 - 365 - 10 ( boehringer mannheim , frankfurt , germany ). tf - 1 . 8 cell proliferation assay : tf - 1 . 8 cells were grown in the presence of 2 ng / ml of gm - csf . the cells were starved for 24 hours before setting up proliferation assays as described previously ( sun et al ., 1996 ). from dose - response curves the half - maximal proliferation dosage of il - 3 ( 0 . 3 ng / ml ), gm - csf ( 0 . 03 ng / ml ), il - 5 ( 0 . 3 ng / ml ) or epo ( 5 ng / ml ) was chosen to perform proliferation experiments in the presence of a range of concentrations of moabs . the 3 h - thymnidine incorporation of each sample was determined by liquid scintillation and expressed as disintegrations per minute ( dpm ). eosinophil survival assays : the maximal dose of il - 5 required to support eosinophil survival after 36 hours was determined . eosinophils were then cultured with 1 nm of il 5 plus anti - β c moabs for 36 hours . the viability of eosinophils was quantitated by propidium iodide staining and flow cytometry analysis as described ( nicoletti , 1991 ). cd69 expression : cd69 expression on eosinophils was - measured by means of an anticd69 monoclonal moab coupled to pe by flow cytometry . β c mutants and moab mapping : single amino acid substitutions in the b ′- c ′ and f ′- g ′ loops of domain 4 of the β c have been described previously ( woodcock , et al ., 1994 ; 1996 ). the cdnas for wild type β c and each of the β c mutants in the b ′- c ′ and f ′- g ′ loops were introduced into cos cells by the electroporation ( hercus et al ., 1994 ). cell transfectants were analysed for surface expression with 48 hours after transfection . mutants on the b ′ and c ′ β - strands such as l356n , w358n , 1374n and y376n were expressed on fdcp1 cells from retroviral expression constructs ( jenkins et al ., 1995 ). epitope - mapping of anti - sc antibodies was analysed by immunofluorescent study . the anti - β c moabs were tested for their abilities to recognise wild type β c and the β c mutants analysed by flow cytometer using standard immunofluorescence method . for each mutant , the experiment was repeated at least twice . bion - 1 binding inhibitory peptides : e . coli derived soluble β c domain 4 ( sβ c # 4 ) was coupled to maxisorp elisa plates at 10 μg / 1 ml in 0 . 1m carbonate buffer overnight and then blocked with 1 % bsa . b45 . pep ( fhwwwqp - gggcdydddk ) was derived from four rounds of biopanning the ph . d - 7mer library with sβ c # 4 using an acid eluant . yb12 . pep ( fpfwyhahspws - gggcdykdddk ) was derived from biopanning the ph . d - 12mer library with sβ c # 4 using an acid eluant . b45 was allowed the bond to sβ c # 4 at 0 . 0125 μm and yb12 was allowed to bind sβ c # 4 at 0 . 025 μm . the plate was washed in tbs + 0 . 5 % tween . bion - 1 was added to the plates at a starting concentration of 5 μg / ml and serial dilutions were used to titrate the bion - 1 down to 0 . 004 μg / ml . the plate was washed again and bion - 1 binding to sβ c # 4 was detected with α - mouse conjugated to hrp , using a colour based reaction which was read on a plate counter by absorption . bion - 1 inhibition of chronic myelomonocytic cells : peripheral blood from a patient with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia was centrifuged over ficoll - paque to separate the mononuclear cells . after washing and counting , the cells were plated on agar as a concentration of 10 5 per plate . after incubation in medium containing monoclonal antibodies bion - 1 or 1c1 , with or without il - 3 , for 14 days at 37 ° c . the number of arising colonies were counted by mycroscopical examination . each cell cluster containing more than 40 cells was counted as a colony . previous experiments have shown that the putative f ′- g ′ loop of β c contains a common binding site for il - 5 , gm - csf and il - 3 ( woodcock et al , 1996 ; wo 97 / 28190 ). we have now produced a blocking compound , represented by moab bion - 1 , by immunizing mice with cos cells transfected with a cdna coding for domain 4 of β c . screening of hybridoma supernatants was performed on a cho cell line expressing domain 4 of β c . one hybridoma cell line was identified which produced a moab which specifically recognized this cell line and not a parental cho cell line not expressing domain 4 of β c . this moab was termed bion - 1 and was characterized in biochemical , binding and biological experiments . bion - 1 recognizes domain 4 as well as wild type β c . moab bion - 1 was tested for reactivity against cell lines transfected with β c and against primary cells known to express il - 5 , gm - csf and il - 3 receptors . bion - 1 recognized cos cells transiently transfected with β c cho cells permanently transfected with β c , the erythroleukaemic tf - 1 cell line , and purified peripheral blood human neutrophils , eosinophils and monocytes ( fig1 ). the antigen recognized by bion - 1 was confirmed to be domain 4 of β c , by biochemical analysis of transfected cells . fig2 a shows that bion - 1 immunoprecipitated a surface 125 i - labelled protein of about 120 , 000 mw consistent with the size of β c . similarly , bion - 1 recognized a protein of 120 , 000 mw by western blotting using lysates of cho cells expressing full length wild type β c ( fig2 b ). the size of these bands also corresponded to the bands recognized by a previously developed anti - β c moab ( korpelainen et al 1993 ; woodcock et al , 1996 ). to formally show that bion - 1 recognized domain 4 of β c we also tested bion - 1 for its ability to immiinoprecipitate domain 4 expressed on the surface of cho cells . as a positive control we incorporated a short polypeptide to the n - terminus of domain 4 ( flag epitope ) to which a moab has been previously developed . as a negative control , we used the anti - β c moab 1c1 which recognizes an epitope located elsewhere in β c . fig2 c shows that bion - 1 immunoprecipitated a band of about 80 , 000 mw from 125 i - surface labelled - domain 4 - expressing cho cells consistent with the expected size of domain 4 . moab m2 against the flag epitope added to domain 4 of β c also precipitated a similar size protein . in contrast , moab 1c1 failed to immunoprecipitate domain 4 . these experiments show that bion - 1 can specifically recognize domain 4 of β c on the surface of cells and following denaturation of the protein . bion - 1 inhibits the high affinity binding of il - 5 . gm - csf and il - 3 to tf - 1 cells and to human eosinophils given that domain 4 of β c is crucial for the high affinity binding of il - 5 , gm - csf and il - 3 , we examined whether bion - 1 was able to affect this binding . we found that bion - 1 inhibited in a dose - dependent manner the binding of 125 i - il - 5 , 125 i - gm - csf and 125 i - il - 3 to the human erythroleukaemic cell line tf - 1 . for each radioligand we used the smallest possible concentration to maximize the possibility of measuring high affinity . this can be more readily achieved with il - 3 and gm - csf for which the difference between the low affinity component ( provided by each α chain alone ) and the high affinity component ( provided by co - expressing β c with each a chain ) is about 1 , 000 fold and 30 fold respectively . in the case of il - 5 , the affinity conversion of β c is only in the 25 fold range , hence , high and low affinity binding cannot be clearly separated . this is likely to explain why bion - 1 shows complete inhibition of 125 i - gm - csf and 125 i - il - 3 binding ( fig3 ). the residual 125 i - il - 5 binding seen with high concentrations of bion - 1 is likely to be the result of low affinity 125 i - il - 5 , binding ( α chain ) which bion - 1 would not be expected to inhibit . this is consistent with bion - 1 inhibition of 125 i - il - 5 , binding reaching a plateau beyond which no further inhibition can be detected ( fig3 a ). other anti - β c moab ( anti -, β c control ) and the igg 1 moab control did not inhibit 125 i - il - 5 , 125 i - gm - csf and 125 i - il - 3 binding to tf - 1 cells ( fig3 ). the blocking effect of bion - 1 was seen whether the moab was used as purified igg or as fab ′ fragment . fig4 shows that the fab ′ fragment of bion - 1 blocked the binding of 50 pm 125 i - il - 5 , 50 pm 125 i - gm - csf and 200 pm 125 i - il - 3 to tf - 1 cells . since one of the major clinical utilities of blocking il - 5 , gm - csf and il - 3 binding is likely to be in asthma , a disease in which eosinophils are believed to play a major role , it was important to test whether bion - 1 could block the binding of il - 5 , gm - csf and il - 3 to these cells . as shown in fig5 , bion - 1 inhibited the binding of all three radio - labelled cytokines to purified human eosinophils . in contrast , other anti - β c moab or the igg 1 moab control failed to do so . the fact that bion - 1 inhibited the binding of 125 i - il - 5 , 125 i - gm - csf and 125 i - il - 3 to tf - 1 cells and eosinophils suggested that it might be binding to the critical region in β c to which these cytokines bind or at least in close proximity to it . to try to define the region / epitope in β c recognized by bion - 1 , we used several mutants of β c and examined whether substitutions of individual amino acids in the predicted b ′- c ′ loop or f ′- g ′ loop impaired bion - 1 binding . two sets of experiments were carried out . in the first instance we immunoprecipitated wild type β c from transfected cos cells with a moab anti - β c . the immunoprecipitates were then tested for reactivity with the control anti - β c moab 1c1 , or bion - 1 . the results shows that β c mutants carrying the substitutions m363a / r364a , or e366a or r418a were not recognized by bion - 1 ( fig6 ). in a second set of experiments , the direct binding of radio - labelled bion - 1 was measured on transfectants expressing the same mutants . similar results were obtained in that whilst 1c1 bound with similar affinity to wild type β c and the β c mutants , bion - 1 binding was eliminated by the m363a / r364a , e366a and r418a mutants ( table i ). these results suggest that the epitope recognized by bion - 1 is formed , at least in part , by m363 and / or r364 , e366 and r418 . this is consistent with the disclosure in wo 97 / 28190 that agents that bind the putative f ′- g ′ loop ( of which r418 is part of ) will be antagonists of il - 5 , gm - csf and il - 3 . to confirm that the epitope recognized by bion - 1 was the same or close to the binding site utilized by il - 5 , gm - csf and il - 3 , we performed the reverse experiment , in which bion - 1 was radio - labelled and increasing concentrations of il - 3 used to compete for 125 i - bion - 1 binding . the results showed ( fig7 ) that il - 3 competed for 125 i - bion - 1 binding in a dose - dependent manner emphasizing the close and intimate proximity of bion - 1 and il - 3 binding epitopes in β c bion - 1 specifically inhibits the function of il - 5 . gm - csf and dl - 3 including their stimulation of eosinophil production and activation . to ascertain whether the inhibition of il - 5 , gm - csf and il - 3 binding by bion - 1 was translated into inhibition of il - 5 , gm - csf and il - 3 stimulation we used the factor dependent tf - 1 cell line . this cell line proliferates in the presence of either il - 5 , gm - csf , il - 3 or erythropoietin ( epo ) ( fig8 ). as shown in fig8 moab bion - 1 but not other moab anti - β c nor an igg , control moab inhibited the stimulation of tf - 1 cell proliferation by il - 5 , gm - csf and il - 3 . in contrast , the stimulating ability of erythropoietin was not inhibited showing specificity of bion - 1 for the il - 5 / gm - csf / il - 3 receptors system . titration experiments showed that bion - 1 inhibited cytokine - mediated tf - 1 cell proliferation in a dose - dependent manner with an ed 50 of about 100 - 300 nm ( fig9 ). fig9 also shows that other anti - β c moab were not inhibitory , and that fab fragments of bion - 1 behaved similarly to bion - 1 as a whole igg with virtually overlapping ed 50 values . since eosinophils are believed to be the major effector cells in asthma and they respond to il - 5 , gm - csf and il - 3 , we examined bion - 1 for its ability to block eosinophil production , eosinophil survival and eosinophil activation in response to these three cytokines . we found that bion - 1 but not moab 8e4 inhibited the ability of il - 5 , gm - csf and il - 3 to stimulate the formation of eosinophil colonies from human bone marrow cells ( table ii ). importantly , bion - 1 inhibited the pro survival activity of il - 5 , il - 3 and gm - csf on purified peripheral blood human eosinophils . whilst these cytokines are essential for maintaining eosinophil viability ( fig1 a ), blocking of β c by moab bion - 1 promotes eosinophil cell death to levels similar to those observed in the absence of cytokines ( fig1 b ). eosinophils can be activated by il - 5 , gm - csf and il - 3 as well as by tumour necrosis factor ( tnf - α ), a factor that operates through the tnf - α receptor . a sign of eosinophil activation is the upregulation of the cd69 surface antigen , a phenomenon induced by all four cytokines ( fig1 a ). using this activation system we found that bion - 1 inhibited the activation of eosinophils by il - 5 , gm - csf and il - 3 ( fig1 b ). other moab anti - β c or igg 1 controls failed to do so . in addition the blocking effect of bion - 1 was found to be specific in that the stimulating activity of tnf - α was not inhibited ( fig1 b ). in order to define the mechanism of bion - 1 antagonism we examined bion - 1 for its ability to influence receptor dimerization and activation . we have previously shown that il - 3 or gm - csf or il - 5 induce dimerization of the respective a chains with β c , a phenomenon that leads to receptor activation as measured by tyrosine phosphorylation of β c . this is confirmed here , with fig1 showing that in the absence of cytokines antibodies to the α chain ( left panel ), or β c ( right panel ), immunoprecipitate their appropriate antigens ( α chain and β c respectively ). in the presence of il - 3 , dimerization of α and β c takes place allowing either anti - α chain or anti β c moab to immunoprecipitate both receptor subunits . this is accompanied by tyrosine phosphorylation of β c ( top panel ). we show in this figure that pre - incubation of the cells with bion - 1 blocks receptor dimerizatidn and tyrosine phosphorylation of β c . as a control we used the anti β c moab 1c1 which was unable to prevent receptor dimerization and activation . bion - 1 is shown to inhibit the activity of one or all of il - 5 , il - 3 & amp ; gm - csf mediated effectors of leukaemic cells . in particualr bion - 1 inhibits growth in vitro of chronic myelomonocytic cells ( cmml ), whereas a control antibody ( 1c1 ) does not ( fig1 ). furthermore , bion - 1 inhbits even in the presence of il - 3 whereas the control does not . a large range of potential therapeutic compounds that might act as antagonists , or perhaps agonists of il - 3 , gm - csf and il - 5 individually or collectively , can be readily screened . the screening is initially to determine whether the binding of bion - 1 or a fragment thereof to β c receptor or fragment is inhibited . the nature of these inhibitory compounds will not be limited , and the methods used for a binding assay can be any one of the many techniques known to those skilled in the art . such methods may include affinity selection chromatography , ultrafiltration assays , the scintillation proximity assay , interfacial optical techniques , the quartz crystal microbalance , the jet ring cell , interferometric assays using porous silicon to immobilise the receptor . reference to such techniques can be found in woodbury et al 1999 , which reference is incorporated herein in its entirety . the range of therapeutic compounds may include peptides , oligonucleotides , or other small organic or inorganic molecules . fig1 shows the results of screening 7 - mer and 12 - mer peptide libraries using soluble β c domain 4 supported on elisa plates . the cell line bion - 1 was deposited on the apr . 29th , 1998 in the american type culture collection ( atcc ) at 101801 university boulevard , manassas , va ., united states of america and has been designated atcc hb - 12525 . tested on cos cells transfected with wild type βc or mutants of βc * number of day 14 eosinophil colonies per 10 5 seeded bone marrow cells . values shown are the mean from triplicate determination ± sem . barry , s . c ., et al ( 1994 ) j . biol . chem ., 269 , 8488 - 8492 . contreras , m . a . et al ( 1983 ) methods enzymol ., 92 , 277 - 292 . fukuda et al 1994 , j allergy clin immunol 94 , 584 gearing , d . p . et al ( 1994 ) proc . natl . acad . sci . usa , 91 , 1119 - 1123 . giri , j . g ., et al ( 1994 ) embo j ., 13 , 2822 - 2830 . hercus , t . r . et al ( 1994b ) proc . natl . acad . sci . usa , 91 , 5838 - 5842 . hilton , d . j . et al ( 1994 ) embo j ., 13 , 4765 - 4775 . hilton , d . j . et al ( 1996 ) proc . natl . acad . sci . usa , 93 , 497 - 501 . korpelainen et al ( 1993 ) proc nat . acad . sci usa , 90 , 11137 - 11141 lopez et al , ( 1990 ) int j aller gclin immunol 85 , 99 - 102 lopez a f et al ( 1989 ). proc natl acad sci usa 86 , 7022 - 7026 . mauser et al , ( 1995 ), am j respir crit care med 152 ; 467 munson , p . j . and rodbard , d . ( 1980 ) anal . biochem ., 107 , 220 - 239 . pennica , d . et al ( 1995 ) j . biol . chem ., 270 , 10915 - 10922 . taga , t . et al ( 1992 ) proc . natl . acad . sci . usa , 89 , 10998 - 11001 . tavernier et al 1995 , proc natl acad sci usa 23 : 5194 - 5198 woodbury , c . p . et al ( 1999 ) j chromatogr b biomed sci appl 725 ( 1 ): 113 - 37 . zurawski , s . m . et al ( 1993 ) embo j ., 12 , 2663 - 2670 .
a method of isolating a monoclonal antibody capable of inhibiting any one of il - 3 , gm - csf and il - 5 binding to the common receptor β c , or a monoclonal antibody capable of inhibiting the cytokines binding to a receptor analogous to β c . the method includes the steps of immunizing an animal with a cytokine receptor or portion of a cytokine containing the critical binding site which portion includes the extracellular domain 4 or analogous domain in the analogous common receptor or part thereof . antibodies producing cells from the animal are then isolated and fused with a myeloma cell line and then screened for a cell line that produces an antibody of the desired type . a monoclonal antibody , or fragments thereof capable of inhibiting the binding of the cytokines il - 3 , gm - csf and il - 5 to the β c receptor , and a hybridoma cell line producing the antibody are also claimed .