This year we have continued to identify novel mAbs in several formats as Fabs, scFvs and eAds against cancer-related proteins. These mAbs were tested for their activity against cancer cells in vitro and in vivo and used for development of novel approaches for multispecific targeting. We have also characterized drugability of some mAbs including their propensity for aggregation. The major accomplishments are summarized below. 1) Unlike other human IgG domains, CH2 is not involved in strong interchain interactions and isolated single CH2 is soluble and monomeric. However, it is prone to aggregation especially when mutated. In native IgG and Fc molecules, the N-terminal residues of CH2 from the two heavy chains interact with each other and form hinge regions. By contrast, the N-terminal residues are highly disordered in isolated CH2. We have hypothesized that removal of the CH2 N-terminal residues may not only increase its stability as it does for the stabilized variant m01s but also its aggregation resistance. To test this hypothesis we constructed a shortened variant of IgG1 CH2 (CH2s) where the first seven residues of the N-terminus were deleted. We found that the thermal stability of CH2s was increased by 5oC compared to CH2. Importantly, we demonstrated that CH2s is significantly less prone to aggregation than CH2 as measured by Thioflavin T (ThT) fluorescence, turbidity and dynamic light scattering (DLS). We also found that the CH2s exhibited pH-dependent binding to a soluble single-chain human neonatal Fc receptor (shFcRn) which was significantly stronger than the very weak shFcRn binding to CH2 as measured by flow cytometry. Computer modeling suggested a possible mode of CH2 aggregation involving its N-terminal residues. Therefore, deletion of the N-terminal residues could increase drugability of CH2-based therapeutic candidates. This strategy to increase stability and aggregation resistance could also be applicable to other Ig-related proteins. 2) We also demonstrated for the first time the successful generation of a soluble, monomeric CH3 domain (mCH3). In contrast to the wild-type dimeric CH3, the mCH3 exhibited pH-dependent binding to FcRn similar to that of Fc. The binding free energy of mCH3 to FcRn was higher than that of isolated CH2 but lower than that of Fc. Therefore, CH3 may contribute a larger portion of the free energy of binding to FcRn than CH2. A fusion protein of mCH3 with an engineered antibody domain (m36.4) also bound to FcRn in a pH-dependent fashion, and exhibited significantly higher neutralizing activity against HIV-1 than m36.4-Fc fusion proteins. The m36.4-mCH3 fusion protein was monomeric, stable, soluble and expressed at a high level in E. coli. We also found that engineering an additional disulfide bond in mCH3 remarkably increased its thermal stability while the FcRn binding was not affected. These data suggest that mCH3 could not only help in the exploration of the dual mechanisms of the CH3 contribution to Fc functions (dimerization and FcRn interactions) but could also be used for the development of candidate therapeutics with optimized half-life, enhanced tissue penetration, access to sterically restricted binding sites and increased therapeutic efficacy. 3) Conjugation of small molecule drugs to specific sites on the antibody molecule has been increasingly used for the generation of relatively homogenous preparations of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) with physicochemical properties similar or identical to those of the naked antibody. Our collaborators previously developed a method for conjugation of small molecules to glycoproteins through existing glycans by using an engineered glycotransferase and a chemically reactive sugar as a handle to conjugate a small molecule. We used this method with some modifications to generate an ADC from a monoclonal antibody, m860, which we identified from a human naive phage display Fab library by panning against the extracellular domain of human HER2. M860 bound to cell surface-associated HER2 with affinity comparable to that of trastuzumab (Herceptin), but to a different epitope. The ADC m860 was generated by enzymatically adding a reactive keto-galactose to m860 using an engineered glycotransferase and conjugating the reactive m860 to aminooxy auristatin F. It exhibited potent and specific cell-killing activity against Her2HER2 positive cancer cells, including trastuzumab-resistant breast cancer cells. This unique ADC may have utility as a potential therapeutic for HER2 positive cancers alone or in combination with other drugs. Our results also validate the keto-galactose/engineered glycotransferase method for generation of functional ADCs, which could potentially also be used for preparation of ADCs targeting other disease markers.
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