The invention provides methods, systems and reagents for regulating pH-sensitive
protein interaction by incorporating non-natural amino acids into the
protein (e.g. an
antibody, or its functional fragment, derivative, etc.). The invention also relates to specific uses in regulating pH-sensitive binding of antibodies to
tumor site, by conferring enhanced tumor-specificity / selectivity. In that embodiment, the non-natural amino acids preferably have desirable side-chain pKa's, such that at below physiological pH (e.g. about pH 6.3-6.5) the non-natural
amino acid confer enhanced binding to tumor antigens in acidic environments. Such non-natural amino acids can be incorporated by any suitable means, such as by utilizing a modified aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase to charge the nonstandard
amino acid to a modified tRNA, which forms strict Watson-Crick base-
pairing with a codon that normally forms wobble base-
pairing with natural tRNAs (e.g. the degenerate codon orthogonal
system.