Harari Daniel, Kuhn Nadine, Abramovich Renne, Sasson Keren, Zozulya Alla L, Smith Paul, Schlapschy Martin, Aharoni Rina, Köster Mario, Eilam Raya, Skerra Arne, Schreiber Gideon
From the Departments of Biological Chemistry,
the Munich Center for Integrated Protein Science & Lehrstuhl für Biologische Chemie, Technische Universität München, 85350 Freising-Weihenstephan, Germany.
J Biol Chem. 2014 Oct 17;289(42):29014-29. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M114.602474. Epub 2014 Sep 5.
IFNβ is a common therapeutic option to treat multiple sclerosis. It is unique among the family of type I IFNs in that it binds to the interferon receptors with high affinity, conferring exceptional biological properties. We have previously reported the generation of an interferon superagonist (dubbed YNSα8) that is built on the backbone of a low affinity IFNα but modified to exhibit higher receptor affinity than even for IFNβ. Here, YNSα8 was fused with a 600-residue hydrophilic, unstructured N-terminal polypeptide chain comprising proline, alanine, and serine (PAS) to prolong its plasma half-life via "PASylation." PAS-YNSα8 exhibited a 10-fold increased half-life in both pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic assays in a transgenic mouse model harboring the human receptors, notably without any detectable loss in biological potency or bioavailability. This long-lived superagonist conferred significantly improved protection from MOG35-55-induced experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis compared with IFNβ, despite being injected with a 4-fold less frequency and at an overall 16-fold lower dosage. These data were corroborated by FACS measurements showing a decrease of CD11b(+)/CD45(hi) myeloid lineage cells detectable in the CNS, as well as a decrease in IBA(+) cells in spinal cord sections determined by immunohistochemistry for PAS-YNSα8-treated animals. Importantly, PAS-YNSα8 did not induce antibodies upon repeated administration, and its biological efficacy remained unchanged after 21 days of treatment. A striking correlation between increased levels of CD274 (PD-L1) transcripts from spleen-derived CD4(+) cells and improved clinical response to autoimmune encephalomyelitis was observed, indicating that, at least in this mouse model of multiple sclerosis, CD274 may serve as a biomarker to predict the effectiveness of IFN therapy to treat this complex disease.
干扰素β是治疗多发性硬化症的一种常用治疗选择。它在I型干扰素家族中独具特色,因为它能以高亲和力与干扰素受体结合,赋予其卓越的生物学特性。我们之前报道过一种干扰素超级激动剂(命名为YNSα8)的产生,它以低亲和力的干扰素α为骨架构建,但经过修饰后表现出比干扰素β更高的受体亲和力。在这里,YNSα8与一条由脯氨酸、丙氨酸和丝氨酸(PAS)组成的600个残基的亲水性、无结构的N端多肽链融合,通过“PAS化”延长其血浆半衰期。在携带人类受体的转基因小鼠模型的药效学和药代动力学试验中,PAS - YNSα8的半衰期延长了10倍,值得注意的是,其生物学效力或生物利用度没有任何可检测到的损失。与干扰素β相比,这种长效超级激动剂在注射频率降低4倍且总剂量降低16倍的情况下,对MOG35 - 55诱导的实验性自身免疫性脑脊髓炎的保护作用显著增强。流式细胞术测量结果证实了这些数据,显示中枢神经系统中可检测到的CD11b(+)/CD45(hi)髓系细胞减少,免疫组化检测显示PAS - YNSα8处理的动物脊髓切片中IBA(+)细胞减少。重要的是,PAS - YNSα8反复给药后不会诱导抗体产生,并且在治疗21天后其生物学效力保持不变。观察到脾脏来源的CD4(+)细胞中CD274(PD - L1)转录本水平升高与自身免疫性脑脊髓炎临床反应改善之间存在显著相关性,这表明,至少在这个多发性硬化症小鼠模型中,CD274可能作为一种生物标志物来预测干扰素治疗这种复杂疾病的有效性。