Biophysical Characterization of the Contribution of the Fab Region to the IgG-FcγRIIIa Interaction

[Image: see text] The cell-surface receptor FcγRIIIa is crucial to the efficacy of therapeutic antibodies as well as the immune response. The interaction of the Fc region of IgG molecules with FcγRIIIa has been characterized, but until recently, it was thought that the Fab regions were not involved in the interaction. To evaluate the influence of the Fab regions in a biophysical context, we carried out surface plasmon resonance analyses using recombinant FcγRIIIa ligands. A van’t Hoff analysis revealed that compared to the interaction of the papain-digested Fc fragment with FcγRIIIa, the interaction of commercially available, full-length rituximab with FcγRIIIa had a more favorable binding enthalpy, a less favorable binding entropy, and a slower off rate. Similar results were obtained from analyses of IgG1 molecules and an IgG1-Fc fragment produced by Expi293 cells. For further validation, we also prepared a maltose-binding protein-linked IgG1-Fc fragment (MBP-Fc). The binding enthalpy of MBP-Fc was nearly equal to that of the IgG1-Fc fragment for the interaction with FcγRIIIa, indicating that such alternatives to the Fab domains as MBP do not positively contribute to the IgG-FcγRIIIa interactions. Our investigation strongly suggests that the Fab region directly interacts with FcγRIIIa, resulting in an increase in the binding enthalpy and a decrease in the dissociation rate, at the expense of favorable binding entropy.