Antigen-specific human antibodies from mice comprising four distinct genetic modifications

Abstract

HUMAN sequence monoclonal antibodies, which in theory combine high specificity with low immunogenicity, represent a class of potential therapeutic agents. But nearly 20 years after Köhler and Milstein first developed methods for obtaining mouse antibodies¹, no comparable technology exists for reliably obtaining high-affinity human antibodies directed against selected targets. Thus, rodent antibodies², and in vitro modified derivatives of rodent antibodies^3–5, are still being used and tested in the clinic. The rodent system has certain clear advantages; mice are easy to immunize, are not tolerant to most human antigens, and their B cells form stable hybridoma cell lines. To exploit these advantages, we have developed transgenic mice that express human IgM, IgG and Ig^κ in the absence of mouse IgM or Ig^κ. We report here that these mice contain human sequence transgenes that undergo V(D)J joining, heavy-chain class switching, and somatic mutation to generate a repertoire of human sequence immunoglobulins. They are also homozygous for targeted mutations that disrupt V(D)J rearrangement at the endogenous heavy- and ^κ light-chain loci. We have immunized the mice with human proteins and isolated hybridomas secreting human IgG_κ antigen-specific antibodies.