The invention relates to a method of preparing heteromultimeric
polypeptides such as bispecific antibodies, bispecific immunoadhesins and
antibody-immunoadhesin chimeras. The invention also relates to the
heteromultimers prepared using the method. Generally, the method involves
introducing a protuberance at the interface of a first polypeptide and a
corresponding cavity in the interface of a second polypeptide, such that
the protuberance can be positioned in the cavity so as to promote
heteromultimer formation and hinder homomultimer formation.
"Protuberances" are constructed by replacing small amino acid side chains
from the interface of the first polypeptide with larger side chains (e.g.
tyrosine or tryptophan). Compensatory "cavities" of identical or similar
size to the protuberances are created in the interface of the second
polypeptide by replacing large amino acid side chains with smaller ones
(e.g. alanine or threonine). The protuberance and cavity can be made by
synthetic means such as altering the nucleic acid encoding the
polypeptides or by peptide synthesis.