Methods of Generating Bioactive Peptide-bearing Antibodies and Compositions Comprising the Same

1 .- 56 . (canceled)

57 . An isolated antibody, or antigen-binding fragment thereof, comprising one or more bioactive peptide amino acid sequence(s), wherein at least one bioactive peptide amino acid sequence is engrafted into at least one of: (i) a light chain variable region comprising one or more chicken framework regions and/or (ii) a heavy chain variable region comprising one or more chicken framework regions.

58 . The isolated antibody of claim 57 , wherein the bioactive peptide amino acid sequence is engrafted into at least one of CDR-H1, CDR-H2 or CDR-H3 of the heavy chain variable region.

59 . The isolated antibody of claim 57 , wherein the bioactive peptide amino acid sequence is engrafted into at least one of CDR-L1, CDR-L2 or CDR-L3 of the light chain variable region.

60 . The isolated antibody of claim 58 , wherein the heavy chain further comprises a human IgG1 constant region.

61 . The isolated antibody of claim 59 , wherein the light chain further comprises a human lambda light chain constant region.

62 . The isolated antibody of any of claims 57 to 61 , wherein the antibody further comprises at least one flexible amino acid linker sequence between the bioactive peptide amino acid sequence and a chicken framework region.

63 . The isolated antibody of claim 57 , wherein the antibody comprises a heavy chain variable region of general formula (I):

N-X-B-Y-C  (I) wherein:

N is an amino terminal region of the heavy chain variable region,

X is a flexible amino acid linker region and consists of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 or 20 amino acids;

B is a bioactive peptide amino acid sequence and consists of an amino acid sequence of no more than 60, or no more than 50 amino acid residues to a minimum of at least 3 amino acid residues;

Y is a flexible amino acid linker region and consists of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 or 20 amino acids; and

C is a carboxy terminal region of the heavy chain variable region, and

wherein at least one of the following applies:

N comprises FR-1, set forth as SEQ ID NO:24, or a variant thereof, and C comprises FR-2, set forth as SEQ ID NO:25, or a variant thereof; or

N comprises FR-2, set forth as SEQ ID NO:25, or a variant thereof, and C comprises FR-3, set forth as SEQ ID NO:26, or a variant thereof; or

N comprises FR-3, set forth as SEQ ID NO:26, or a variant thereof, or flanking SEQ ID NO: 27, and C comprises FR-4, set forth as SEQ ID NO:28, or a variant thereof, or flanking SEQ ID NO:29.

64 . The isolated antibody of claim 63 , wherein C further comprises the human IgG1 constant region, set forth as SEQ ID NO:47, or a variant thereof.

65 . The isolated antibody of claim 63 , wherein N comprises FR-3, set forth as SEQ ID NO:26, or a variant thereof, or flanking SEQ ID NO:27, and C comprises FR-4, set forth as SEQ ID NO:28, or a variant thereof, or flanking SEQ ID NO: 29.

66 . The isolated antibody of claim 62 or 63 , wherein X and/or Y are linker sequences derived from the CDR of a generic parental chicken clone.

67 . The isolated antibody of claim 62 or 63 , wherein X and/or Y are linker sequences selected from TABLE 4.

68 . The isolated antibody of claim 57 , wherein the antibody comprises a light chain variable region of general formula (II):

N-X-B-Y-C  (II) wherein:

N is an amino terminal region of the light chain variable region,

X is a flexible amino acid linker region and consists of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 or 20 amino acids;

B is a bioactive peptide amino acid sequence and consists of an amino acid sequence of no more than 60, or no more than 50 amino acid residues to a minimum of at least 3 amino acid residues;

Y is a flexible amino acid linker region and consists of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 or 20 amino acids; and

C is a carboxy terminal region of the light chain variable region, and

wherein at least one of the following applies:

N comprises FR-1, set forth as SEQ ID NO:31, or a variant thereof, or flanking SEQ ID NO: 32, and C comprises FR-2, set forth as SEQ ID NO:33, or a variant thereof, or flanking SEQ ID NO:34; or

N comprises FR-2, set forth as SEQ ID NO:33, or a variant thereof, and C comprises FR-3, set forth as SEQ ID NO:35, or a variant thereof; or

N comprises FR-3, set forth as SEQ ID NO:35, or a variant thereof, and C comprises FR-4, set forth as SEQ ID NO:36, or a variant thereof.

69 . The isolated antibody of claim 68 , wherein C further comprises the human lambda light chain, set forth as SEQ ID NO:48, or a variant thereof.

70 . The isolated antibody of claim 68 , wherein N comprises FR-1, set forth as SEQ ID NO:31, or a variant thereof, or flanking SEQ ID NO:32, and C comprises FR-2, set forth as SEQ ID NO:33, or a variant thereof, or flanking SEQ ID NO: 34.

71 . isolated antibody of claim 62 or 68 , wherein X and/or Y is a linker sequence selected from TABLE 4.

72 . The isolated antibody of any of claims 57-71 , wherein the light chain variable region comprises the chicken framework regions VL-FR1, VL-FR2, VL-FR3 and VL-FR4 amino acid sequences set forth in SEQ ID NO:s 31, 33, 35 and 36, respectively, and variants thereof.

73 . The isolated antibody of any of claims 57-72 , wherein the heavy chain variable region comprises the chicken framework regions VH-FR-1, VH-FR2, VH-FR3 and VH-FR4 amino acid sequences set forth in SEQ ID NO:S 24, 25, 26, and 28, respectively, and variants thereof.

74 . The isolated antibody of any of claims 57-73 , wherein the bioactive peptide is selected from the group consisting of (i) bioactive peptides that inhibit medically-important proteases, (ii) neuropeptides (iii) bioactive peptides that inhibit or activate neuropeptide activity, (iii) peptide hormones, (iv) bioactive peptides that inhibit or activate peptide hormone activity, (v) peptides that are ligands for Class A GPCRs, (vi) bioactive peptides the inhibit or activate Class A GPCRs, (vii) Class B GPCR ligands, and (viii) bioactive peptides that inhibit or activate Class B GPCR ligands.

75 . The isolated antibody of any of claims 57-74 , wherein the antibody comprises two bioactive peptide sequences, wherein one bioactive peptide sequence is engrafted into the light chain variable region and the second bioactive peptide sequence is engrafted into the heavy chain variable region.

76 . The isolated antibody of claim 57 , wherein the bioactive peptide is an inhibitor of the complement system.

77 . The isolated antibody of claim 76 , wherein the bioactive peptide comprises an SGMI core amino acid sequence according to

(SEQ ID NO: 5)

X 1 CTX 2 X 3 X 4 CX 5 Q

where:

X 1 is F or V,

X 2 is R or K,

X 3 is K or L,

X 4 is L or W, and

X 5 is Y or N; and

wherein the bioactive peptide inhibits the activity of at least one of MASP-1 or MASP-2.

78 . The antibody of claim 77 , wherein the bioactive peptide comprises at least one of the following sequences: SEQ ID NO:6 to SEQ ID NO:11.

79 . The antibody of claim 77 , wherein the polypeptide inhibits the activity of MASP-1.

80 . The antibody of claim 79 , wherein the bioactive peptide comprises at least one of SEQ ID NO: 6 to SEQ ID NO:8.

81 . The antibody of claim 77 , wherein the polypeptide inhibits the activity of MASP-2.

82 . The antibody of claim 81 , wherein the bioactive peptide comprises at least one of SEQ ID NO: 9 to SEQ ID NO:11.

83 . The antibody of claim 75 , wherein one bioactive peptide inhibits MASP-1 and the other bioactive peptide inhibits MASP-2.

84 . The isolated antibody of any of claims 57 to 83 , wherein the isolated antibody has substantially the same biological activity as the bioactive peptide.

85 . A nucleic acid molecule encoding the amino acid sequence of an isolated antibody of any of claims 57-84 .

86 . A cell comprising a nucleic acid molecule of claim 85 .