A regulatory toolbox of MiniPromoters to drive selective expression in the brain.

The Pleiades Promoter Project integrates genomewide bioinformatics with large-scale knockin mouse production and histological examination of expression patterns to develop MiniPromoters and related tools designed to study and treat the brain by directed gene expression. Genes with brain expression patterns of interest are subjected to bioinformatic analysis to delineate candidate regulatory regions, which are then incorporated into a panel of compact human MiniPromoters to drive expression to brain regions and cell types of interest. Using single-copy, homologous-recombination "knockins" in embryonic stem cells, each MiniPromoter reporter is integrated immediately 5' of the Hprt locus in the mouse genome. MiniPromoter expression profiles are characterized in differentiation assays of the transgenic cells or in mouse brains following transgenic mouse production. Histological examination of adult brains, eyes, and spinal cords for reporter gene activity is coupled to costaining with cell-type-specific markers to define expression. The publicly available Pleiades MiniPromoter Project is a key resource to facilitate research on brain development and therapies.

An anti-HER2 biparatopic antibody that induces unique HER2 clustering and complement-dependent cytotoxicity.

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is a receptor tyrosine kinase that plays an oncogenic role in breast, gastric and other solid tumors. However, anti-HER2 therapies are only currently approved for the treatment of breast and gastric/gastric esophageal junction cancers and treatment resistance remains a problem. Here, we engineer an anti-HER2 IgG1 bispecific, biparatopic antibody (Ab), zanidatamab, with unique and enhanced functionalities compared to both trastuzumab and the combination of trastuzumab plus pertuzumab (tras + pert). Zanidatamab binds adjacent HER2 molecules in trans and initiates distinct HER2 reorganization, as shown by polarized cell surface HER2 caps and large HER2 clusters, not observed with trastuzumab or tras + pert. Moreover, zanidatamab, but not trastuzumab nor tras + pert, elicit potent complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) against high HER2-expressing tumor cells in vitro. Zanidatamab also mediates HER2 internalization and downregulation, inhibition of both cell signaling and tumor growth, antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and phagocytosis (ADCP), and also shows superior in vivo antitumor activity compared to tras + pert in a HER2-expressing xenograft model. Collectively, we show that zanidatamab has multiple and distinct mechanisms of action derived from the structural effects of biparatopic HER2 engagement.