Aldolase catalytic antibody

A process for carrying out an aldol addition reaction comprising the following steps:

• Step A:
• in an aqueous medium at a pH value between about 6 and 10, forming a reaction mixture by admixing an aliphatic ketone donor, an aldehyde acceptor, and a catalytically effective amount of monoclonal antibodies or paratope-containing portions of said monoclonal antibodies, wherein said monoclonal antibodies or paratope-containing portions thereof include a lysine with an .epsilon.-amino group which reacts with the aliphatic ketone donor to form an enamine intermediate;
• and then
• Step B:
• maintaining said reaction mixture under biological reaction conditions for a time period sufficient for the enamine intermediate of said Step A to react with the aldehyde acceptor to form an aldol addition product.

A method for preparing cells that when cultured in a medium produce antibody molecules or molecules containing antibody combining site portions that catalyze an aldol addition reaction between an aliphatic ketone donor and a aldehyde acceptor, the method comprising the steps of:

• Step A:
• immunizing an animal with an immunogen that includes a a .beta.-diketone hapten;
• then
• Step B:
• maintaining said animal for a time period sufficient for said animal to secrete antibodies that immunoreact with a haptenic ligand;
• then
• Step C:
• transferring genes that encode antibody molecules or molecules containing antibody combining site portions from antibody-producing cells of said maintained, immunized animal of said step (B) into host cells to form hybrid cells that contain genes from at least two sources, and which formed hybrid cells (i) produce antibody molecules or molecules containing antibody combining site portions from said transferred genes when cultured and (ii) can be cultured substantially indefinitely;
• then
• Step D:
• culturing the hybrid cells in an appropriate culture medium for a time period sufficient for those hybrid cells to produce antibody molecules or molecules containing antibody combining site portions;
• then
• Step E:
• recovering antibody molecules or molecules containing antibody combining site portions from the cultured hybrid cells;
• then
• Step F:
• screening the obtained antibody molecules or molecules containing antibody combining site portions that catalyze the aldol addition reaction;
• and then
• Step G:
• growing clones of said identified hybrid cell that produces antibody molecules or molecules containing antibody combining site portions that catalyze the aldol addition reaction between the aliphatic donor and the aldehyde acceptor.