April 30, 2025
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
Keio University
Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)
Highlights
Developed a modified natural luciferin that uses immunoglobulin G (IgG) as a catalyst for the luminescence reaction.
Succeeded in changing the emission color according to the structure of IgG.
Expected to be applied to antibody quality control, enabling rapid and simple determination of the degree of denaturation.
Ryo Nishihara, principal investigator, Yoshiki Kihara, technical staff (at the time of the research), and Ryoji Kurita, researcher, of the Health and Medical Research Institute at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), in collaboration with Eiji Yamamoto, associate professor at the Department of System Design Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, and Hidenori Hirano, project associate professor at the Graduate School of Science and Technology at the same university, have developed a luminescent substrate (luciferin) that reacts with immunoglobulin G (IgG)—an antibody widely used in therapeutics and diagnostics—and changes its emission color according to the structure of the IgG.
Antibodies play a role in recognizing and eliminating viruses and bacteria in the body and are also widely used as diagnostic and therapeutic agents. However, antibodies are susceptible to environmental influences during manufacturing, storage, and use, and lose their original function when denatured.
In this study, the researchers discovered for the first time that IgG, a type of antibody, possesses "pseudo-luciferase activity," which catalyzes the luminescence reaction of luciferin. They also developed a technology to detect IgG denaturation using this activity. The emission wavelength of this newly designed and synthesized luciferin changes according to the structure of IgG, allowing for simple and quantitative evaluation of the degree of IgG denaturation by measuring it. This method has higher sensitivity than conventional fluorescence analysis methods, and the measurement can be completed within three minutes simply by mixing in the developed luciferin. Therefore, it is expected to contribute to the quality control of IgG-related antibody drugs and the development of diagnostic agents.
The details of this technology will be published in Analytical Chemistry on April 30, 2025.
Please see below for the full press release.