Elsevier

Drug Discovery Today

Volume 26, Issue 1, January 2021, Pages 44-55
Drug Discovery Today

Review
Keynote
Dual-acting therapeutic proteins for intraocular use

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drudis.2020.10.025Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Dual acting therapeutic proteins may be a better strategy than drug combinations for treatment of chronic retinal diseases.

  • Several targets to treat neovascularisation and inflammation have been identified.

  • A dual acting molecule to increase the duration of action in the vitreous has potential for treatment of chronic retinal diseases.

  • The key challenge in developing intraocular medicines is ensuring there is minimal ocular toxicity.

  • Maintaining protein stability and avoiding protein aggregation and misfolding are necessary.

Antibody-based medicines that target vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) are administered by intravitreal injection (IVI) to treat chronic neovascular retinal diseases. Much ongoing effort is focussed on enhancing therapeutic outcome of these medicines. One strategy is the use of dual-acting drugs (e.g., bispecific antibodies) to simultaneously bind to more than one intraocular biological target. A dual-acting molecule targeting components within the vitreal cavity could also extend vitreous residence time. In this review, we describe the applications of bispecific antibodies within the eye, with consideration of potential targets, applications, and suitable bispecific formats.

Introduction

Intravitreally administered antibody-based medicines targeting VEGF, which causes angiogenesis and neovascularisation, have revolutionised the treatment of neovascular retinal diseases 1, 2. Uncontrolled vascularisation and photoreceptor degeneration characterises several posterior blinding conditions, including wet age-related macular degeneration (wet-AMD), diabetic retinopathy (DR), and diabetic macular edema (DME) [3]. VEGF is not the only potential target for neovascularisation that can be used to treat chronic intraocular blinding disease [4]. Inflammation is also involved in causing blinding disease (e.g., posterior uveitis) [5]. Dual-targeting protein-based therapeutics, such as bispecific antibodies (bsAbs), that are capable of interacting with two target epitopes simultaneously 6, 7 have the potential to increase the efficacy of intraocular medicines.

The concept of bsAbs has long been known [8] and are envisaged to exploit spatiotemporal relationships that are not possible by using a combination or mixture of antibodies [9]. To date, clinical realisation has been achieved in oncology. Blinatumomab was approved in 2015 to treat acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and emicizumab was approved in 2018 to treat haemophilia A [10]. Catumaxomab was approved, but has now been withdrawn for commercial reasons. Blinatumomab is a bispecific T cell engager (BiTe) molecule comprising two antibody single-chain variable fragments (scFvs) in a molecule with an overall molecular weight of ∼55 kDa. One fragment of blinatumomab binds to CD19 on a malignant B cell and the other fragment binds to CD3 on a T cell to redirect and elicit a cytotoxic response 11, 12. Emicizumab is a full IgG antibody that binds to blood factors IXa and X to allow the coagulation cascade to continue in the absence of sufficient amounts of factor VIII [13].

Drug combination strategies are widely used in medicine, such as in oncology, and infection [14]. IVI is invasive and carries some risk; thus, intraocular combination strategies would need to be formulated as fixed-dose combinations to minimise the number of IVIs. Disadvantages of fixed-dose combinations include a lack of dosing flexibility and difficulties in identifying adverse reactions. The volume of an IVI is 50 μl, which is a very small volume for a combination of protein-based drugs at sufficient individual doses while minimising risks of protein misfolding and aggregation. Despite these limitations, and as described later, combinations have been evaluated, but have yet not progressed to clinical registration 14, 15, 16, 17, 18.

The key challenge in developing intraocular medicines is to ensure there is no ocular toxicity 19, 20, 21, 22. The eye is susceptible to inflammation, which can be caused by immunogenicity to the therapeutic protein and possible protein aggregation. The production of antidrug antibodies (ADAs) and inflammatory responses 19, 23 are damaging and sight-threatening and must be avoided because intraocular tissues are delicate and nonregenerative. The eye can be susceptible to endophthalmitis following injections [24]. Proteins that are modified, for example by poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-ylation, must be manufactured to the highest standard, as evidenced by the recent regulatory failure and withdrawal of Abicipar pegol [25]. The anti-VEGF PEGylated aptamer, pegaptanib sodium appeared to be well tolerated [26], although its use decreased after the clinical introduction of ranibizumab and aflibercept. Ocular tolerability and safety profiles should be thoroughly assessed. Preclinical and clinical studies must carefully designed [21] to minimise any adverse reactions related to the protein of interest [22]. Long-term studies moving from branded to biosimilar protein therapeutics must also be conducted [27]. In terms of bsAbs for development in retinal therapy, there are ongoing studies in preclinical stages with only one bsAb (i.e., faricimab) targeting VEGF and angiopoietin-2 (ANG-2) in full clinical development to treat DME 28, 29 and wet-AMD 30, 31, 32.

Given that current anti-VEGF biologics require long-term monthly or bimonthly injections, there is a need to reduce the frequency of IVIs to treat chronic intra-ocular conditions. There has been near-exponential growth of IVIs since 2007 [33], but the need for repeated intravitreal administration is difficult for patients, and compliance often decreases after the first year of treatment 34, 35, 36. Minimising the cumulative number of IVIs is also important because of the potential for harmful effects to ocular tissues [37]. Chronic ocular hypertension has been associated with repeated intravitreal anti-VEGF injections [38]. Dual-acting biologics could be developed where one function is to display increased affinity to tissue in the posterior cavity to slow clearance from the vitreous (affinity targeting) and the other function would be to bind to a therapeutic target.

Here, we describe intraocular targets that could be considered for the development of dual-acting biologics and how bispecific molecules might be also used to increase duration of action. We also briefly describe different bispecific formats.

Section snippets

Targets to inhibit neovascularisation

VEGF is a proven clinical target for several different indications. Since its first discovery as an angiogenic factor during the late 1980s [39], several drugs have been developed as VEGF inhibitors in oncology. To date, three antibody-based therapies targeting VEGF for intraocular use have been approved [i.e., ranibizumab (Lucentis®), aflibercept (Eylea®), and brolucizumab (Beovu®)], and one non-antibody-based therapy [i.e., pegaptanib (Macugen®)]. Bevacizumab (Avastin®) is also widely used

Dual therapeutic targeting

Faricimab (Fig. 1a) is an IgG antibody with the ability to bind two therapeutic targets. It comprises one Fab with specificity for VEGF and another Fab with specificity for ANG-2, and is in Phase III trials for the treatment of wet-AMD [30] and DME [29]. By blocking two soluble targets, dual-acting antibodies could combine the activities of two pathway-modulating molecules into one for enhanced efficacy. Faricimab was developed as researchers began to look beyond anti-VEGF monotherapies because

Dual-action molecules designed for increased duration of action

There is a recognised need to increase the duration of action of intravitreally administered medicines 36, 102, 103, 104. There is often reduced compliance by patients after the first year of treatment 34, 69, especially patients who have not previously participated in a clinical trial 35, 36. Strategies to develop complex formulations of therapeutic proteins 105, 106, 107 have been considered, but these must address the challenges to maintain protein stability 108, 109, 110 and ocular

Bispecific molecular motifs include IgG and non-IgG formats

The IgG format (e.g., faricimab; Fig. 1a) is not the only molecular format that is being examined for use as a bispecific, dual-functional therapeutic protein for intraocular use. Fc-fusion (e.g., aflibercept) and Fab (e.g., ranibizumab) have elements of the IgG format. Non-IgG formats referred to earlier are brolucizumab, which is a scFv, and abicipar, which is a DARPin. These and other non-IgG formats 153, 154, 155 along with other molecules described in the patent literature 156, 157 might

Concluding remarks and future prospects

As with any therapeutic, target selection is a first crucial step for the development of dual-acting or bispecific biotherapeutics. Target selection is compounded by the need to select two different targets that together will bring clinical benefit. Bispecific therapeutics are clinically proven in oncology, where they can exploit spatial temporal relationships that are not possible using a combination of constituent drugs. The use of intravitreally administered drug combinations has been

Acknowledgments

M.C. is thankful for the PhD funding from University of East London. N.I. is grateful for PhD funding from Santen Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. S.A., P.T.K., and S.B. are grateful for funding from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, Moorfields Special Trustees, the Helen Hamlyn Trust (in memory of Paul Hamlyn), Medical Research Council, Fight for Sight, and the Michael and Ilse

Glossary

Dual therapeutic bispecific antibodies (bsAbs)
are molecules capable of binding to two different targets simultaneously.
Affinity dual acting molecules
are designed to contain therapeutic and vitreous tissue specific binding domains. The purpose of the binding domain specific to vitreous tissue is to delay ocular clearance of the molecule.
Neovascular ligands
are non-membrane bound soluble targets that bind to cell surface receptors resulting in uncontrolled vascularisation. Multiple ligands are

Matthew Collins is studying for a PhD at the University of East London, working on a project to develop hybrid strategies to generate bispecific antibody mimetics. He earnt his MSc in clinical drug development from Queen Mary University of London in 2017.

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  • Cited by (0)

    Matthew Collins is studying for a PhD at the University of East London, working on a project to develop hybrid strategies to generate bispecific antibody mimetics. He earnt his MSc in clinical drug development from Queen Mary University of London in 2017.

    Sahar Awwad is a postdoctoral research fellow at UCL, School of Pharmacy and UCL, Institute of Ophthalmology. Her current research projects are widely based on (i) drug delivery; (ii) ocular pharmaceutics, pharmacokinetics and biodistribution studies; and (iii) protein production and modification; and she has extensive knowledge of protein characterisation, modification and conjugation. She has also developed the PK-Eye, an innovative two-compartment in vitro model of the human eye to aid in the evaluation of ocular formulations. This led to the formation of Optceutics Ltd, a spin-out company that utilises the PK-Eye with UK-US investment.

    Hanieh Khalili was awarded a PhD in biotherapeutics in 2012 from University College of London, School of Pharmacy. She continued for additional 4 years as postdoctoral research fellow at UCL School of Pharmacy and Institute of Ophthalmology working on the development and formulation of novel antibody mimetics for ocular inflammation. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutics at University of East London, School of Health, Sport and Bioscience. Her research focuses on the generation and formulation of bispecific antibody mimetics using recombinant-chemical approaches. Her expertise is to characterise and analyse the binding affinity and thermodynamic properties of modified proteins using protein–protein interaction assays, such as surface plasmon resonance and isothermal titration calorimetry.

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