Hae-Mi Kim, Kyoung-Jin Kim, Kwanghyun Lee, Myeong Jin Yoon, Jenny Choih, Tae-Joon Hong, Eun Ji Cho, Hak-Jun Jung, Jayoung Kim, Ji Soo Park, Hye Young Na, Yong-Seok Heo, Chae Gyu Park, Heungrok Park, Sungho Han, Donggoo Bae
{"title":"GNUV201, a novel human/mouse cross-reactive and low pH-selective anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody for cancer immunotherapy.","authors":"Hae-Mi Kim, Kyoung-Jin Kim, Kwanghyun Lee, Myeong Jin Yoon, Jenny Choih, Tae-Joon Hong, Eun Ji Cho, Hak-Jun Jung, Jayoung Kim, Ji Soo Park, Hye Young Na, Yong-Seok Heo, Chae Gyu Park, Heungrok Park, Sungho Han, Donggoo Bae","doi":"10.1186/s12865-024-00609-z","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Several PD-1 antibodies approved as anti-cancer therapies work by blocking the interaction of PD-1 with its ligand PD-L1, thus restoring anti-cancer T cell activities. These PD-1 antibodies lack inter-species cross-reactivity, necessitating surrogate antibodies for preclinical studies, which may limit the predictability and translatability of the studies.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>To overcome this limitation, we have developed an inter-species cross-reactive PD-1 antibody, GNUV201, by utilizing an enhanced diversity mouse platform (SHINE MOUSE™). GNUV201 equally binds to human PD-1 and mouse PD-1, equally inhibits the binding of human PD-1/PD-L1 and mouse PD-1/PD-L1, and effectively suppresses tumor growth in syngeneic mouse models. The epitope of GNUV201 mapped to the \"FG loop\" of hPD-1, distinct from those of Keytruda<sup>®</sup> (\"C'D loop\") and Opdivo<sup>®</sup> (N-term). Notably, the structural feature where the protruding epitope loop fits into GNUV201's binding pocket supports the enhanced binding affinity due to slower dissociation (8.7 times slower than Keytruda<sup>®</sup>). Furthermore, GNUV201 shows a stronger binding affinity at pH 6.0 (5.6 times strong than at pH 7.4), which mimics the hypoxic and acidic tumor microenvironment (TME). This phenomenon is not observed with marketed antibodies (Keytruda<sup>®</sup>, Opdivo<sup>®</sup>), implying that GNUV201 achieves more selective binding to and better occupancy on PD-1 in the TME.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>In summary, GNUV201 exhibited enhanced affinity for PD-1 with slow dissociation and preferential binding in TME-mimicking low pH. Human/monkey/mouse inter-species cross-reactivity of GNUV201 could enable more predictable and translatable efficacy and toxicity preclinical studies. These results suggest that GNUV201 could be an ideal antibody candidate for anti-cancer drug development.</p>","PeriodicalId":9040,"journal":{"name":"BMC Immunology","volume":"25 1","pages":"29"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11088064/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"BMC Immunology","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12865-024-00609-z","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"IMMUNOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Several PD-1 antibodies approved as anti-cancer therapies work by blocking the interaction of PD-1 with its ligand PD-L1, thus restoring anti-cancer T cell activities. These PD-1 antibodies lack inter-species cross-reactivity, necessitating surrogate antibodies for preclinical studies, which may limit the predictability and translatability of the studies.
Results: To overcome this limitation, we have developed an inter-species cross-reactive PD-1 antibody, GNUV201, by utilizing an enhanced diversity mouse platform (SHINE MOUSE™). GNUV201 equally binds to human PD-1 and mouse PD-1, equally inhibits the binding of human PD-1/PD-L1 and mouse PD-1/PD-L1, and effectively suppresses tumor growth in syngeneic mouse models. The epitope of GNUV201 mapped to the "FG loop" of hPD-1, distinct from those of Keytruda® ("C'D loop") and Opdivo® (N-term). Notably, the structural feature where the protruding epitope loop fits into GNUV201's binding pocket supports the enhanced binding affinity due to slower dissociation (8.7 times slower than Keytruda®). Furthermore, GNUV201 shows a stronger binding affinity at pH 6.0 (5.6 times strong than at pH 7.4), which mimics the hypoxic and acidic tumor microenvironment (TME). This phenomenon is not observed with marketed antibodies (Keytruda®, Opdivo®), implying that GNUV201 achieves more selective binding to and better occupancy on PD-1 in the TME.
Conclusions: In summary, GNUV201 exhibited enhanced affinity for PD-1 with slow dissociation and preferential binding in TME-mimicking low pH. Human/monkey/mouse inter-species cross-reactivity of GNUV201 could enable more predictable and translatable efficacy and toxicity preclinical studies. These results suggest that GNUV201 could be an ideal antibody candidate for anti-cancer drug development.
期刊介绍:
BMC Immunology is an open access journal publishing original peer-reviewed research articles in molecular, cellular, tissue-level, organismal, functional, and developmental aspects of the immune system as well as clinical studies and animal models of human diseases.