School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health, Division of Pharmacy, Durham University, Stockton-on-Tees TS17 6BH, UK.
Drug Delivery, Genentech, Inc., South San Francisco, CA 94080, USA.
J Control Release. 2018 Mar 10;273:13-20. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2018.01.015. Epub 2018 Feb 6.
Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), which are now more frequently administered by subcutaneous (SC) injection rather than intravenously, have become a tremendously successful drug format across a wide range of therapeutic areas. Preclinical evaluations of mAbs to be administered by SC injection are typically performed in species such as mice, rats, minipigs, and cynomolgus monkeys to obtain critical information regarding formulation performance and prediction of PK/PD outcomes needed to select clinical doses for first-in-human studies. Despite extensive efforts, no preclinical model has been identified to date that accurately predicts clinical outcomes for these SC injections. We have addressed this deficiency with a novel in vitro instrument, termed Scissor, to model events occurring at the SC injection site and now further validated this approach using a set of eight mAbs for which clinical PK/PD outcomes have been obtained. Diffusion of these mAbs from the Scissor system injection cartridge into a large volume physiological buffer, used to emulate mAb movement from the SC injection site into the systemic circulation, provided distinct profiles when monitored over a 6h period. Curve-fitting analysis of these profiles using the Hill equation identified parameters that were used, along with physicochemical properties for each mAb, in a partial least squares analysis to define a relationship between molecule and formulation properties with clinical PK outcomes. The results demonstrate that parameters of protein charge at neutral pH and isoelectric point (pI) along with combined formulation properties such as viscosity and mAb concentration can dictate the movement of the mAb from the injection cartridge to infinite sink compartment. Examination of profile characteristics of this movement provided a strong predictive correlation for these eight mAbs. Together, this approach demonstrates the feasibility of this in vitro modelling strategy as a tool to identify drug and formulation properties that can define the performance of SC injected medicines and provide the potential for predicting clinical outcomes that could be useful for formulation selection and a first-in-human clinical dosing strategy.
单克隆抗体(mAbs)现在越来越多地通过皮下(SC)注射而不是静脉注射给药,在广泛的治疗领域已成为一种非常成功的药物形式。通常在小鼠、大鼠、小型猪和食蟹猴等物种中进行 SC 注射 mAb 的临床前评估,以获得关于制剂性能的关键信息,并预测 PK/PD 结果,从而选择用于首次人体研究的临床剂量。尽管进行了广泛的努力,但迄今为止尚未确定能够准确预测这些 SC 注射临床结果的临床前模型。我们使用一种称为 Scissor 的新型体外仪器来解决这一缺陷,该仪器可模拟 SC 注射部位发生的事件,现在我们使用一组已获得临床 PK/PD 结果的 8 种 mAb 进一步验证了这种方法。这些 mAb 从 Scissor 系统注射盒扩散到大量生理缓冲液中,用于模拟 mAb 从 SC 注射部位转移到全身循环的过程,在 6 小时监测期间提供了不同的图谱。使用 Hill 方程对这些图谱进行曲线拟合分析,确定了参数,这些参数与每个 mAb 的物理化学性质一起,用于偏最小二乘分析,以定义分子和制剂特性与临床 PK 结果之间的关系。结果表明,在中性 pH 和等电点(pI)下蛋白质电荷的参数以及结合制剂特性(如粘度和 mAb 浓度)可以决定 mAb 从注射盒向无限吸收池的移动。对这种运动的图谱特征的检查为这 8 种 mAb 提供了很强的预测相关性。总之,这种体外建模策略的方法证明了其可行性,可作为一种工具来识别可以定义 SC 注射药物性能的药物和制剂特性,并提供预测临床结果的潜力,这对于制剂选择和首次人体临床剂量策略可能很有用。