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Giorgetti SI, Etcheverrigaray M, Terry F, Martin W, De Groot AS, Ceaglio N, Oggero M, Mufarrege EF. Development of highly stable and de-immunized versions of recombinant alpha interferon: Promising candidates for the treatment of chronic and emerging viral diseases. Clin Immunol 2021; 233:108888. [PMID: 34798238 PMCID: PMC8595249 DOI: 10.1016/j.clim.2021.108888] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2021] [Revised: 10/04/2021] [Accepted: 11/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Human interferon alpha (hIFN-α) administration constitutes the current FDA approved therapy for chronic Hepatitis B and C virus infections. Additionally, hIFN-α treatment efficacy was recently demonstrated in patients with COVID-19. Thus, hIFN-α constitutes a therapeutic alternative for those countries where vaccination is inaccessible and for people who did not respond effectively to vaccination. However, hIFN-α2b exhibits a short plasma half-life resulting in the occurrence of severe side effects. To optimize the cytokine's pharmacokinetic profile, we developed a hyperglycosylated IFN, referred to as GMOP-IFN. Given the significant number of reports showing neutralizing antibodies (NAb) formation after hIFN-α administration, here we applied the DeFT (De-immunization of Functional Therapeutics) approach to develop functional, de-immunized versions of GMOP-IFN. Two GMOP-IFN variants exhibited significantly reduced ex vivo immunogenicity and null antiproliferative activity, while preserving antiviral function. The results obtained in this work indicate that the new de-immunized GMOP-IFN variants constitute promising candidates for antiviral therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sofía Inés Giorgetti
- UNL, CONICET, FBCB (School of Biochemistry and Biological Sciences), CBL (Biotechnological Center of Litoral), Ciudad Universitaria, Ruta Nacional 168 Km 472.4, C.C. 242. (S3000ZAA), Santa Fe, Argentina
| | - Marina Etcheverrigaray
- UNL, CONICET, FBCB (School of Biochemistry and Biological Sciences), CBL (Biotechnological Center of Litoral), Ciudad Universitaria, Ruta Nacional 168 Km 472.4, C.C. 242. (S3000ZAA), Santa Fe, Argentina
| | | | | | - Anne Searls De Groot
- EpiVax, Inc., Providence, RI, USA; Institute for Immunology and Informatics, University of Rhode Island, RI, USA
| | - Natalia Ceaglio
- UNL, CONICET, FBCB (School of Biochemistry and Biological Sciences), CBL (Biotechnological Center of Litoral), Ciudad Universitaria, Ruta Nacional 168 Km 472.4, C.C. 242. (S3000ZAA), Santa Fe, Argentina
| | - Marcos Oggero
- UNL, CONICET, FBCB (School of Biochemistry and Biological Sciences), CBL (Biotechnological Center of Litoral), Ciudad Universitaria, Ruta Nacional 168 Km 472.4, C.C. 242. (S3000ZAA), Santa Fe, Argentina
| | - Eduardo Federico Mufarrege
- UNL, CONICET, FBCB (School of Biochemistry and Biological Sciences), CBL (Biotechnological Center of Litoral), Ciudad Universitaria, Ruta Nacional 168 Km 472.4, C.C. 242. (S3000ZAA), Santa Fe, Argentina.
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Saleh MI, Bani Melhim S. A time-to-event analysis describing virologic response in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection. J Chemother 2019; 31:274-283. [PMID: 31070545 DOI: 10.1080/1120009x.2019.1609739] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
The objective of this project was to describe longitudinal change in chronic hepatitis C virologic reponse using time-to-event (TTE) analysis and to identify patient characteristics that determine the dynamics of this change. We compiled demographic, clinical, and genetic data from 715 chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients treated with pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) alfa-2a and ribavirin. TTE modelling described the time between antiviral treatment initiation and the first observation of undetectable HCV RNA. A lognormal TTE model was selected to describe time to first undetectable HCV RNA. The identified predictors of prolonged time to achieve undetectable HCV RNA include HCV genotype 1, low pre-treatment ALT level, older age, or with elevated baseline haemoglobin level. In conclusion, a cohort of patients with low probability of achieving SVR can be identified. This project identifies patients with a low risk of responding to PEG-IFN alfa-2a and ribavirin combination.
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