Pepscan Presto / Products and Services / Epitope mapping
Epitope mapping
Epitope mapping is the process of identifying the binding site of a given antibody to its target. FDA and EMEA guidelines require such specific binding site information to be included in any regulatory dossier. PEPSCAN's CLIPS™ Epitope Mapping Technology allows defining the protein-protein interaction sites at the level of individual amino acids and can be applied to linear, conformational and discontinuous epitopes. PEPSCAN has mapped the epitopes of most blockbuster antibodies.
Examples and Applications
Exact epitope definition is of paramount importance for generating IP protection for novel antibodies and to determine freedom to operate possibilities as exemplified in the Arzerra - Rituximab example below which was generated using PEPSCAN's CLIPSTM epitope mapping technology.
PEPSCAN's CLIPSTM Epitope Mapping Technology clearly identified Arzerra is binding to a totally different - and discontinuous- epitope on CD-20 than Ritixumab.
PEPSCAN's CLIPS™ Epitope Mapping Technology uses a high-throughput synthesis of overlapping structurally constrained CLIPSTM peptides on microarrays covering the complete sequence and structure of a given protein. Antibody binding studies using a fully automated ELISA-type read-out identify the peptides representing the protein interaction site of interest.
PEPSCAN's CLIPSTM Epitope Mapping allows defining the protein-protein interaction sites at the level of individual amino acids and can be applied to linear, conformational and discontinuous epitopes. Even discontinuous epitopes involving dimeric or multimeric protein complexes can be mapped. The technology is not restricted to antibodies, but can be used to identify other ligand binding sites as well (polyclonal serum, patient serum, antibody scaffolds, protein-protein interactions).
The CLIPSTM Epitope mapping advantage
With its CLIPSTM technology, PEPSCAN has developed the next generation in epitope mapping: the use of conformational peptides with defined spatial orientations significantly increases the power compared to more traditional methods. The results of CLIPSTM mapping studies provide crucial information relevant for any therapeutic antibody. Also the technology is frequently used to demonstrate equivalence in binding characteristics of Biosimilars.
CLIPSTM epitope mapping has a number of distinct advantages over other standards such as X-ray crystallography and mutagenisis. These benefits include providing binding epitope information plus information on the contribution of each single amino acid as required for regulatory and IP filing, the ease of screening multiple samples and exceptionally low material requirements (often only 0.1 mg required). The method is fully synthetic and no recombinant technologies, with intrinsic biological variations, are required. Our microarray capabilities allow the synthesis and screening of up to 50,000 CLIPSTM peptides in parallel providing a unique depth to the epitope mapping services we can offer. Since the CLIPSTM peptide microarrays are reusable many times PEPSCAN's method is highly suited for the screening of multiple monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies samples. This discriminates PEPSCAN's CLIPSTM epitope mapping technology from other more traditional technologies and gives the PEPSCAN CLIPSTM Epitope Mapping technology a unique competitive edge for antibody lead selection, antibody benchmarking, novel IP generation and IP freedom to operate studies.
Application notes
application notes will follow soon
For further information please contact us at info@pepscan.com or request a quote directly.