Inhibition and Reversal of Microbial Attachment by an Antibody with Parasteric Activity against the FimH Adhesin of Uropathogenic E. coli

Attachment proteins from the surface of eukaryotic cells, bacteria and viruses are critical receptors in cell adhesion or signaling and are primary targets for the development of vaccines and therapeutic antibodies. It is proposed that the ligand-binding pocket in receptor proteins can shift between inactive and active conformations with weak and strong ligand-binding capability, respectively. Here, using monoclonal antibodies against a vaccine target protein - fimbrial adhesin FimH of uropathogenic Escherichia coli, we demonstrate that unusually strong receptor inhibition can be achieved by antibody that binds within the binding pocket and displaces the ligand in a non-competitive way. The non-competitive antibody binds to a loop that interacts with the ligand in the active conformation of the pocket but is shifted away from ligand in the inactive conformation. We refer to this as a parasteric inhibition, where the inhibitor binds adjacent to the ligand in the binding pocket. We showed that the receptor-blocking mechanism of parasteric antibody differs from that of orthosteric inhibition, where the inhibitor replaces the ligand or allosteric inhibition where the inhibitor binds at a site distant from the ligand, and is very potent in blocking bacterial adhesion, dissolving surface-adherent biofilms and protecting mice from urinary bladder infection.