Patent ID: 8409570

Claim:
A method of inducing apoptosis comprising exposing mammalian cancer cells to an anti-DR5 antibody, or a functional fragment thereof, wherein said anti-DR5 antibody or antibody fragment comprises amino acid substitutions in the heavy and light chains of full length antibody 16E2 (SEQ ID NOS: 11 and 13, respectively), and has a greater affinity for DR5 than said full-length antibody 16E2, and/or exhibits a greater biological activity and/or potency than said full-length antibody 16E2, wherein said amino acid substitutions comprise: (a) a set of heavy chain substitutions selected from the group consisting of (i) M34L, N53Q, L102Y; (ii) M34L, N53Y, L102Y; (iii) G33A, N53Q, L102Y; (iv) G33A, N53Y, L102Y; (v) T28A, N53Q, L102Y in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 11; and (b) a set of light chain substitutions selected from the group consisting of (i) Q24S, G50K, K51D, H95bY, N25S, N53E; (ii) Q24S, K51A, D92S, S93Y; and (iii) Q24S, K51A, R91A in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 13.