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  • Programmable DARPin-based receptors for the detection of thrombotic markers.

Programmable DARPin-based receptors for the detection of thrombotic markers.

Nature chemical biology (2022-08-09)
Tobias Strittmatter, Yidan Wang, Adrian Bertschi, Leo Scheller, Patrick C Freitag, Preetam Guha Ray, Pascal Stuecheli, Jonas V Schaefer, Thomas Reinberg, Dimitrios Tsakiris, Andreas Plückthun, Haifeng Ye, Martin Fussenegger
ABSTRACT

Cellular therapies remain constrained by the limited availability of sensors for disease markers. Here we present an integrated target-to-receptor pipeline for constructing a customizable advanced modular bispecific extracellular receptor (AMBER) that combines our generalized extracellular molecule sensor (GEMS) system with a high-throughput platform for generating designed ankyrin repeat proteins (DARPins). For proof of concept, we chose human fibrin degradation products (FDPs) as markers with high clinical relevance and screened a DARPin library for FDP binders. We built AMBERs equipped with 19 different DARPins selected from 160 hits, and found 4 of them to be functional as heterodimers with a known single-chain variable fragments binder. Tandem receptors consisting of combinations of the validated DARPins are also functional. We demonstrate applications of these AMBER receptors in vitro and in vivo by constructing designer cell lines that detect pathological concentrations of FDPs and respond with the production of a reporter and a therapeutic anti-thrombotic protein.

MATERIALS
Product Number
Brand
Product Description

Sigma-Aldrich
Plasma, from human
Sigma-Aldrich
Fibrin from human plasma, insoluble powder
Sigma-Aldrich
Thrombin Active from human plasma, ≥95% (SDS-PAGE)