Novel methods for producing, and compositions of, humanized immunoglobulins
having one or more complementarity determining regions (CDR's) and possible additional
amino acids from a donor immunoglobulin and a framework region from an accepting
human immunoglobulin are provided. Each humanized immunoglobulin chain will usually
comprise, in addition to the CDR's, amino acids from the donor immunoglobulin framework
that are, e.g., capable of interacting with the CDR's to effect binding affinity,
such as one or more amino acids which are immediately adjacent to a CDR in the
donor immunoglobulin or those within about about 3 as predicted by molecular
modeling. The heavy and light chains may each be designed by using any one or all
of various position criteria. When combined into an intact antibody, the humanized
immunoglobulins of the present invention will be substantially non-immunogenic
in humans and retain substantially the same affinity as the donor immunoglobulin
to the antigen, such as a protein or other compound containing an epitope.