Patent Application: US-12277505-A

Abstract:
this invention relates to the detection of fusion proteins . the invention provides a set of at least a first and a second molecular probe , each probe provided with a dye wherein the dyes together allow energy transfer , at least one probe provided with a reactive group allowing juxtaposing at least the first and second probes wherein the reactive group allows to modulate juxtaposing the probes such that there is an increased likelihood of energy transfer between the dyes . a method is provided which permits detecting the presence of a fusion protein in a cell at the single cell level .

Description:
as mentioned above , the present invention relates to a method for determining the presence of a fusion protein in a cell using a probe set . this method can be used to diagnose various types of cancer which involve chromosomal translocations , inversions or deletions that give rise to a fusion gene . for example , approximately 35 % of adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia ( all ) and chronic myeloid leukemia ( cml ) are associated with a specific chromosomal defect , a translocation between chromosomes 9 and 22 that creates the philadelphia ( ph ) chromosome . this translocation occurs at the site in the genome of a protein tyrosine kinase named abl , creating the abnormal bcr - abl fusion protein , a gene product of the in - frame fusion of the abl gene with another gene called bcr . generally , fusion proteins play an important role in the oncogenetic process . for example , the kinase activity of abk in the bcr - abl fusion protein is activated and deregulated , driving the uncontrolled cell growth observed in all and in cml . when acute lymphoblastic leukemia is diagnosed in a patient , typically comprising traditional cytogenetics such as karyotype analysis for the ph chromosome , the total number of leukemia cells is approximated to 10 11 to 10 13 . a majority of patients reach complete remission after about 5 weeks of chemotherapy . complete remission does not mean that the leukemic cells are totally eradicated from the body but that their level is beyond the sensitivity level of classical cytomorphologic methods ( e . g . 1 to 5 %). at this time , up to 10 10 malignant cells can still remain in the patient . they represent the minimal residual disease ( mrd ). detection of low frequencies of residual malignant cells allows a longer follow - up of the tumor burden during chemotherapy and thus , permits to better appreciate the sensitivity of leukemia cells to treatment . it is now established that the level of mrd represents a powerful prognostic factor for final outcome . besides , the detection of an increase of the mrd level enables to anticipate impending relapse . the method provided in the present invention allows to discriminate between the presence of normal proteins and an aberrant fusion protein at the single cell level . as an example of this method we will describe the preparation of a probe set for the detection of the tel - aml1 fusion protein . also described is a method using this probe set to detect the presence of tel - aml1 fusion protein in all cells at the time of diagnosis and during follow - up to detect the level of mrd . preferably , a probe set according to the invention comprises a set of two fluorochrome - conjugated antibodies each antibody additionally provided with a reactive group . methods of producing an antibody are known to those skilled in the art . for example , to obtain a polyclonal antibody , a laboratory animal is immunized with an immunogen such as a recombinant protein or a synthetic peptide . the animal &# 39 ; s immune response is monitored by taking test bleeds and determining the titer of the reactivity . when appropriately high titers are obtained , blood is collected from the animal and antisera are prepared . further fractionation of the antisera to enrich for antibodies reactive to the protein can be done if desired . see e . g . harlow et al . antibodies . a laboratory manual , cold spring harbor publications , new york ( 1988 ). monoclonal antibodies can be obtained by various techniques known in the art , for example by fusing spleen cells of immunized mice with a myeloma cell line by the addition of polyethylene glycol ( peg ). fused cells are cultured in a selection medium , e . g . medium containing a mixture of hypoxanthine , aminopterin and thymidine . fused cells which survive in this selection medium are tested for the production of the desired antibody ( often by solid - phase immunoassay such as elisa ) and , if positive , the cultures are cloned so that there is only one cell in each culture well . this produces a clone of cells from a single progenitor which is both immortal and a producer of monoclonal antibody . antibodies obtained can be characterised using conventional immunodiagnostic techniques e . g . by western blotting using lysates of cells expressing a recombinant fusion protein or by elisa . biotin is typically conjugated to proteins via primary amines ( i . e ., lysines ). usually , between 3 and 6 biotin molecules are conjugated to each antibody . dialyze or exchange over a column the antibody in 100 mm carbonate , ph 8 . 4 . measure the antibody concentration after buffer equilibration . ( for igg , 1 mg / ml has an a 280 of 1 . 4 ). if the antibody concentration is less than 1 mg / ml , the conjugation will probably be sub - optimal . if necessary , dilute the antibody to a concentration of 4 mg / ml . dissolve 10 mgs of biotin ( n - hydroxysuccinimidobiotin , pierce ) in 1 ml anhydrous dmso ( anhydrous dimethyl sulfoxide , aldrich ) immediately before use . the reactive biotin molecule is unstable . once the biotin is solubilized , it should be used immediately . add biotin to give a ratio of 80 μg per mg of antibody ; mix immediately . wrap the tube in foil ; incubate and rotate at room temperature for 2 hours . remove the unreacted biotin and exchange the antibody into 10 mm tris ph 8 . 2 , 150 mm nacl , phix ( 5 mg / ml pentachlorophenol in 95 % ethanol ( use as 10 , 000 ×, or 3 - 4 drops per liter ) sigma ). fitc is a small organic molecule , and is typically conjugated to proteins via primary amines ( i . e ., lysines ) of an immunoglobulin . usually , between 3 and 6 fitc molecules are conjugated to each antibody ; higher conjugations can result in solubility problems as well as internal quenching ( and reduced brightness ). thus , an antibody will usually be conjugated in several parallel reactions to different amounts of fitc , and the resulting reagents will be compared for brightness ( and background stickiness ) to choose the optimal conjugation ratio . the entire conjugation can be performed in about a half - day . the reactive fluorescein molecule , fluorescein isothiocyanate , is unstable . once a vial has been cracked and the fitc solubilized , it should be used immediately . since single vials of fitc contain sufficient material for ˜ 100 mgs of antibody , it is economical to perform multiple fitc conjugations on the same day . dialyze or exchange over a column the antibody in 500 mm carbonate , ph 9 . 5 . measure the antibody concentration after buffer equilibration . ( for igg , 1 mg / ml has an a 280 of 1 . 4 ). if the antibody concentration is less than 1 mg / ml , the conjugation will probably be sub - optimal . if necessary , dilute the antibody to a concentration of 4 mg / ml . dissolve 10 mgs ( the entire contents of 1 vial ; no need to weigh ) of fitc ( molecular probes ) in anhydrous dmso immediately before use . add fitc to give a ratio of 40 - 80 μg per mg of antibody ; mix immediately . wrap the tube in foil ; incubate and rotate at room temperature for 1 hour . remove the unreacted fitc and exchange the antibody into 500 mm carbonate , ph 9 . 5 by gel filtration or dialysis . determine f / p and protein concentration by measuring the absorbance at 280 and 495 nm . igg : 1 mg / ml has an a ( 280 ) of 1 . 4 ; mw = 150 , 000 . igm : 1 mg / ml has an a ( 280 ) of 1 . 2 ; mw = 900 , 000 . fluorescein : 1 mm has an a ( 495 ) of 68 and an a ( 280 ) of 11 . 8 . f / p values of 3 - 10 are probably optimal for any particular igg . protein concentration : igg ( mg / ml )=[ a ( 280 )− 0 . 31 * a ( 495 )]/ 1 . 4 a bone marrow sample is obtained from an all patient and leukocytes are isolated according to standard procedures . leukocytes are labeled with two cell surface markers to define a leukocyte subset via immunophenotypic characteristics . fitc - conjugated monoclonal anti - human cd19 ( fitc - cd19 ) and pe - conjugated monoclonal anti - human cd10 ( pe - cd10 ) were used . cells are then fixed according to standard procedures , e . g . in 1 % paraformaldehyde , to preserve the integrity of the cell and its content . the cell membrane is permeabilized using a detergent such as saponin to make the cell interior accessible to probe set . cells are labeled for 1 hour at 4 degrees celsius in the dark with a mixture containing a probe set according to the invention ( 0 . 1 to 0 . 3 microgram / ml of each probe ), comprising a cy3 - labeled biotin - conjugated antibody against the helix - loop - helix motif of tel and a cy5 - labeled biotin - conjugated antibody against the runt domain of aml1 . after washing of the cells to remove unbound probe , the cells are incubated with unlabeled avidin to induce sufficiently close and stable juxtaposing of the two different antibodies . the cells are then analyzed in a flow cytometer . results are shown in fig4 . panel a shows the evaluation of the tel - aml1 fusion protein in precursor - b - all cells obtained from a patient at the time of diagnosis . all blast cells are first gated on the basis of their light scatter characteristics ( forward scatter versus side scatter . then , cd19 - positive blast cells are gated ( fl1 versus side scatter ). the presence of the tel - aml1 fusion protein is readily detectable in the subset of cd19 +/ cd10 + all cells . in panel b , similar analyses are shown from the same patient after a five week therapy protocol to evaluate the effectiveness of the treatment . only 3 % of the cd10 + blast cells is positive for the tel - aml1 fusion protein , i . e . only 0 . 2 % of total leukocytes . the detection of such a low frequency of tel - aml1 positive cells ( minimal residual disease ) has not been shown before . we have used the faescalibur to perform fret measurements using cy3 and cy5 as donor / acceptor pair . the 488 nm excitation is not optimal for cy3 ( 543 would be better ), 632 is optimal for cy5 , and with this setup we could obtain reasonable good fret distribution curves ( actually they are better than that obtained with fitc / tritc pair because the autofluorescence is much less of a problem ). in addition we could use the 488 -& gt ; 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