New insights of glycosylation role on variable domain of antibody structures

Abstract

N-glycosylation at antibody variable domain (Fv^N-glyco) has emerged as an important modification for antibody function such as stability and antigen recognition, but it is also associated with autoimmune disease and IgE-mediated hypersensitivity reaction. However, the information related to its role and regulation is still scarce. Therefore, we investigated new insights in this regarding using solved antibodies structures presenting in the Protein Data Bank (PDB). From 130 Fv^N-glyco structures, we observed significant findings as a higher prevalence of N-glycosylation in human and mouse antibodies containing IGHV1-8 and IGHV2-2 germline genes, respectively. We also speculate the influence of activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) in introducing N-glycosylation sites during somatic hypermutation, specifically on threonine to asparagine substitution. Moreover, we highlight the enrichment of anti-HIV antibodies containing N-glycosylation at antibody variable domain and where we showed a possible important role of N-glycosylation, besides to antigen-antibody interactions, in antibody chain pair and antibody-antibody interactions. These could be a positive secondary effect of glycosylation to enhance antigen binding and further neutralization, including an additional mechanism to form Fab-dimers. Overall, our findings extend the knowledge on the characteristics and diverse role of N-glycosylation at antibody variable domain.