A new technology for increasing therapeutic protein levels in the brain over extended periods

PLoS One. 2019 Apr 12;14(4):e0214404. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214404. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Effective delivery of protein therapeutics into the brain remains challenging because of difficulties associated with crossing the blood-brain barrier (BBB). To overcome this problem, many researchers have focused on antibodies binding the transferrin receptor (TfR), which is expressed in endothelial cells, including those of the BBB, and is involved in receptor-mediated transcytosis (RMT). RMT and anti-TfR antibodies provide a useful means of delivering therapeutics into the brain, but the anti-TfR antibody has a short half-life in blood because of its broad expression throughout the body. As a result, anti-TfR antibodies are only maintained at high concentrations in the brain for a short time. To overcome this problem, we developed a different approach which slows down the export of therapeutic antibodies from the brain by binding them to a brain-specific antigen. Here we report a new technology, named AccumuBrain, that achieves both high antibody concentration in the brain and a long half-life in blood by binding to myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG), which is specifically expressed in oligodendrocytes. We report that, using our technology, anti-MOG antibody levels in the brains of mice (Mus musculus) and rats (Rattus norvegicus) were increased several tens of times for a period of one month. The mechanism of this technology is different from that of RMT technologies like TfR and would constitute a breakthrough for central nervous system disease therapeutics.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antibodies / immunology
  • Antibodies, Anti-Idiotypic / genetics
  • Antibodies, Anti-Idiotypic / immunology*
  • Blood-Brain Barrier / drug effects
  • Blood-Brain Barrier / immunology*
  • Brain / drug effects
  • Brain / immunology
  • Epitopes / immunology
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Myelin-Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein / genetics
  • Myelin-Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein / immunology*
  • Organ Specificity / immunology
  • Protein Binding / immunology
  • Rats
  • Receptors, Transferrin / immunology*
  • Signal Transduction / immunology
  • Transcytosis / genetics
  • Transcytosis / immunology

Substances

  • Antibodies
  • Antibodies, Anti-Idiotypic
  • Epitopes
  • Myelin-Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein
  • Receptors, Transferrin

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) under Grant Number JP18am0301006. The funder Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., LTD provided support in the form of salaries for authors Ryosuke Nakano, Sayaka Takagi-Maeda, Tomoko Osato; Kaori Noguchi, Kana Kurihara-Suda, Nobuaki Takahashi, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.