ABSTRACT
Engineering cysteines at specific sites in antibodies to create well-defined ADCs for the treatment of cancer is a promising approach to increase the therapeutic index and helps to streamline the manufacturing process. Here, we report the development of an in silico screening procedure to select for optimal sites in an antibody to which a hydrophobic linker-drug can be conjugated. Sites were identified inside the cavity that is naturally present in the Fab part of the antibody. Conjugating a linker-drug to these sites demonstrated the ability of the antibody to shield the hydrophobic character of the linker-drug while resulting ADCs maintained their cytotoxic potency in vitro. Comparison of site-specific ADCs versus randomly conjugated ADCs in an in vivo xenograft model revealed improved efficacy and exposure. We also report a selective reducing agent that is able to reduce the engineered cysteines while leaving the interchain disulfides in the oxidized state. This enables us to manufacture site-specific ADCs without introducing impurities associated with the conventional reduction/oxidation procedure for site-specific conjugation.
Subject(s)
Antibiotics, Antineoplastic/chemistry , Cysteine/chemistry , Duocarmycins/analogs & derivatives , Immunoconjugates/chemistry , Animals , Antibiotics, Antineoplastic/therapeutic use , Cell Line, Tumor , Duocarmycins/therapeutic use , Humans , Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions , Immunoconjugates/therapeutic use , Immunoglobulin G/chemistry , Immunoglobulin G/therapeutic use , Mice , Models, Molecular , Neoplasms/drug therapy , Oxidation-ReductionABSTRACT
The possibility of solid solution behavior of diastereomeric salts, containing multiple resolving agents of the same family (Dutch Resolution), is predicted by molecular modeling. Super-cells containing different ratios of resolving agents in the diastereomeric salt are constructed and optimized, and their lattice energy is computed. The energy difference between these "simulated solid solutions" and the native structures is related in an understandable fashion to the probability of solid solution formation. This procedure is applied to a family of diastereomeric salts of ephedrine and cyclic phosphoric acids, for which the ternary diagrams have been determined experimentally at 25 degrees C in ethanol. Good agreement between experimental and computational results indicates that this relatively simple and fast method could predict the stable character of solid solution behavior in binary systems.