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Therapeutic antibodies should cover particular physicochemical and functional requirements for successful entry into clinical practice. Numerous experimental and computational approaches have been developed for early identification of different unfavourable features of antibodies. Immune repertoires of healthy humans contain a fraction of antibodies that recognize nitroarenes. These antibodies have been demonstrated to manifest antigen-binding polyreactivity. Here we observed that >20 % of 112 clinical stage therapeutic antibodies show pronounced binding to 2,4-dinitrophenol conjugated to albumin. This interaction predicts a number of unfavourable functional and physicochemical features of antibodies such as polyreactivity, tendency for self-association, stability and expression yields. Based on these findings we proposed a simple approach that may add to the armamentarium of assays for early identification of developability liabilities of antibodies intended for therapeutic use., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Dinitrophenylated human serum albumin (DNP-HSA) with various DNP:HSA ratios was prepared by direct conjugation with dinitrobenzene sulfate or with a caproic acid spacer group (DNP-cap-HSA) using DNP-epsilon-amino-caproic acid N-hydroxy-succinimide ester. The substitution ratio and chemical linkage (presence of a spacer group) were shown to affect the degree of murine anti-DNP antibody binding to antigen, and hence the tissue deposition and efficiency of hepatobiliary transport. DNP-HSA (4.5:1), which poorly binds to IgA anti-DNP antibody, is inefficiently transported into mouse bile. In contrast, 9:1 DNP-cap-HSA readily forms complexes and is more effectively cleared by the hepatobiliary route. The IgA-mediated increase in liver deposition of DNP-cap-HSA (9:1) was found to be associated with an increase in antigen uptake by hepatocytes. In contrast, large complexes formed between DNP-HSA (49:1) and IgA anti-DNP antibody are taken up by nonparenchymal cells of the liver and thus are inefficiently transported into bile. These results suggest that the IgA-mediated uptake by phagocytic cells or hepatocytes of haptenated protein strongly depends on the degree of haptenation.