Discovery of the improved antagonistic prolactin variants by library screening

Prolactin (PRL), a potent growth stimulator of the mammary epithelium, has been suggested to be a factor contributing to the development and progression of breast and prostate cancer. Several PRL receptor (PRLR) antagonists have been identified in the past decades, but their in vivo growth inhibitory potency was restricted by low receptor affinity, rendering them pharmacologically unattractive for clinical treatment. Thus, higher receptor affinity is essential for the development of improved PRLR antagonistic variants with improved in vivo potency. In this study, we generated Site 1 focused protein libraries of human G129R-PRL mutants and screened for those with increased affinity to the human PRLR. By combining the mutations with enhanced affinities for PRLR, we identified a novel G129R-PRL variant with mutations at Site 1 that render nearly 50-fold increase in the antagonistic potency in vitro.