CELL-SURFACE DISPLAY OF A SINGLE-CHAIN ANTIBODY FOR ATTACHING POLYPEPTIDES

To provide an efficient means of coupling proteins, peptides and other suitable moieties to cells, we have constructed a retroviral expressi on vector for cell surface display of a single-chain antibody (scFv) a gainst the hapten 4-ethoxymethylene-2-phenyl-oxazoline-5-one (phOx). T he hapten phOx can be easily conjugated to primary amino and sulfhydry l groups, thus providing points of attachment for the cell surface-bou nd anti-phOx scFv. This universal cell coupling system could prove to be particularly useful for anchoring monoclonal antibodies for tumor t argeting and to present co-stimulatory molecules and other ligands (ev en mixtures) at the cell surface for gene therapy.