A novel approach for rapid high-throughput selection of recombinant functional rat monoclonal antibodies

BACKGROUND: Most monoclonal antibodies against mouse antigens have been derived from rat spleen-mouse myeloma fusions, which are valuable tools for purposes ranging from general laboratory reagents to therapeutic drugs, and yet selecting and expressing them remains a time-consuming and inefficient process. Here, we report a novel approach for the rapid high-throughput selection and expression of recombinant functional rat monoclonal antibodies with different isotypes. RESULTS: We have developed a robust system for generating rat monoclonal antibodies through several processes involving simultaneously immunizing rats with three different antigens expressing in a mixed cell pools, preparing hybridoma cell pools, in vitro screening and subsequent cloning of the rearranged light and heavy chains into a single expression plasmid using a highly efficient assembly method, which can decrease the time and effort required by multiple immunizations and fusions, traditional clonal selection and expression methods. Using this system, we successfully selected several rat monoclonal antibodies with different IgG isotypes specifically targeting the mouse PD-1, LAG-3 or AFP protein from a single fusion. We applied these recombinant anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibodies (32D6) in immunotherapy for therapeutic purposes that produced the expected results. CONCLUSIONS: This method can be used to facilitate an increased throughput of the entire process from multiplex immunization to acquisition of functional rat monoclonal antibodies and facilitate their expression and feasibility using a single plasmid. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12865-018-0274-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.