Modulating pharmacokinetics of an anti-interleukin-8 F(ab')(2) by amine-specific PEGylation with preserved bioactivity

By covalently attaching biocompatible polyethylene-glycol (PEG) groups to epsilon-amino groups of the F(ab')(2) form of a humanized anti-interleukin-8 (anti-IL-8) antibody, we sought to decrease the in vivo clearance rate to give a potentially more clinically acceptable therapeutic. The in vivo clearance was modulated by changing the hydrodynamic size of the PEGylated antibody fragments. To achieve significant increases in the hydrodynamic size with minimal loss in bioactivity, high molecular weight linear or branched PEG molecules were used. Modification involved N-hydroxy-succinamide reaction of the PEGs with primary amines (lysines and/or the N-terminus) of the anti-IL-8 F(ab')(2). The process of adding up to four linear 20 kDa PEG, or up to two branched 40 kDa PEG, gave reproducible distribution of products. The components with uniform size (as assessed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) were purified by a single-step ion-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography and showed no significant loss of biological activity in ligand binding and cell-based assays. Addition of a single branched 40 kDa PEG to a F(ab')(2) (molecular weight (MW)=1.6 million Da) or up to two 40 kDa branched PEG (MW=1.9 million Da) increased the serum half-life to 48 h as compared with the unPEGylated F(ab')(2) with a half-life of 8.5 h. This study shows that by attaching high molecular weight PEGs at a one or two sites, bioactive antibody fragments can be made reproducibly with sizes tailored to achieve the desired pharmacokinetics.

Overexpression of bcl-xL protects astrocytes from glucose deprivation and is associated with higher glutathione, ferritin, and iron levels

BACKGROUND

The possibility of altering outcome from ischemia-like injury by overexpressing the anti-cell death gene bcl-xL was studied. Cells are known to die by different pathways including apoptosis, or programmed cell death, and necrosis. The bcl-xL gene is a member of a family of apoptosis regulating genes and often displays the death-inhibiting properties of the prototype of this family, bcl-2. It is of special interest to study bcl-xL for possible brain protection, because, unlike bcl-2, it is important for normal brain development.

METHODS

Overexpression of bcl-xL was achieved in primary astrocyte cultures using a retroviral vector. Cultures of astrocytes overexpressing bcl-xL or a control gene were injured by hydrogen peroxide, glucose deprivation, or combined oxygen and glucose deprivation. Outcome was assessed morphologically and by release of lactate dehydrogenase. We assessed antioxidant effects by measuring glutathione using monochlorobimane, ferritin by immunoblotting, the level of iron spectrophotometrically, and superoxide using iodonitrotetrazolium violet and dihydroethidium.

RESULTS

Protection by bcl-xL was found against glucose deprivation and hydrogen peroxide exposure but not combined oxygen and glucose deprivation. Higher levels of superoxide were found, without increased levels of lipid peroxidation. Overexpression of bcl-xL was associated with elevated glutathione levels, elevated ferritin levels, and increased amounts of iron. The increased glutathione contributed to the protection from glucose deprivation.

CONCLUSIONS

Overexpression of bcl-xL protects astrocytes from oxidative injury with the same spectrum of protection seen previously for bcl-2. The increased antioxidant defense observed should be beneficial against both apoptotic and necrotic cell death. The effects on levels of ferritin and iron are novel and identify a new area of interest for this gene family. Whether this relates to the effects of these genes on mitochondrial function remains to be elucidated.

Safety and antitumor activity of recombinant soluble Apo2 ligand

TNF and Fas ligand induce apoptosis in tumor cells; however, their severe toxicity toward normal tissues hampers their application to cancer therapy. Apo2 ligand (Apo2L, or TRAIL) is a related molecule that triggers tumor cell apoptosis. Apo2L mRNA is expressed in many tissues, suggesting that the ligand may be nontoxic to normal cells. To investigate Apo2L's therapeutic potential, we generated in bacteria a potently active soluble version of the native human protein. Several normal cell types were resistant in vitro to apoptosis induction by Apo2L. Repeated intravenous injections of Apo2L in nonhuman primates did not cause detectable toxicity to tissues and organs examined. Apo2L exerted cytostatic or cytotoxic effects in vitro on 32 of 39 cell lines from colon, lung, breast, kidney, brain, and skin cancer. Treatment of athymic mice with Apo2L shortly after tumor xenograft injection markedly reduced tumor incidence. Apo2L treatment of mice bearing solid tumors induced tumor cell apoptosis, suppressed tumor progression, and improved survival. Apo2L cooperated synergistically with the chemotherapeutic drugs 5-fluorouracil or CPT-11, causing substantial tumor regression or complete tumor ablation. Thus, Apo2L may have potent anticancer activity without significant toxicity toward normal tissues.

Potentiation of murine astrocyte antioxidant defence by bcl-2: protection in part reflects elevated glutathione levels

Overexpression of the proto-oncogene bcl-2 has been shown to protect a variety of cell types from oxidative and non-oxidative injury, blocking apoptotic and necrotic types of cell death. Retroviral vectors were used to stably overexpress bcl-2 in primary murine astrocyte cultures with more than 95% efficiency. Compared to beta-galactosidase-expressing and uninfected control cells, bcl-2 overexpressing astrocytes suffered < 40% injury after 24 h glucose deprivation, while controls were essentially completely injured. After exposure to 0.2 mM hydrogen peroxide, the bcl-2 overexpressing astrocytes suffered < 40% the injury seen in controls. In contrast, when the cultures were injured by combined oxygen-glucose deprivation, no difference in the extent or time course of injury was found between cells overexpressing bcl-2 and those expressing beta-galactosidase. To investigate one possible mechanism of bcl-2 protection, we measured the levels of glutathione and three antioxidant enzymes. Astrocytes overexpressing bcl-2 had elevated glutathione levels (130-200%), increased superoxide dismutase (170%) and glutathione peroxidase (140%) activities compared with beta-galactosidase-expressing controls. Bcl-2 overexpressing astrocytes suffered less lipid peroxidation after glucose deprivation, as assessed by cis-parinaric acid fluorescence, and demonstrated more rapid removal of hydrogen peroxide from the medium. When glutathione levels were decreased 80% by pretreatment with buthionine sulfoximine, the extent of protection from glucose deprivation of bcl-2 overexpressing cells was decreased by about half. Increased antioxidant defence contributes to protection from glucose deprivation in bcl-2 overexpressing astrocytes.

Increasing vulnerability of astrocytes to oxidative injury with age despite constant antioxidant defenses

This paper investigates the vulnerability of astrocytes to oxidative injury as a function of age in culture in mice. Primary murine cortical astrocyte cultures of different ages were exposed to H2O2, combined oxygen-glucose deprivation or glucose deprivation. Astrocytes became more vulnerable to damage from each injury paradigm with age, showing transitions between 15 and 22 days. Both the antioxidant glutathione and superoxide dismutase activity increased after 30 days in culture, while catalase activity did not change up to 34 days. When the decrease in glutathione with injury was measured, young cells showed no change with H2O2 and decreases of < 20% after oxygen-glucose deprivation or glucose deprivation, while older cultures lost > 50% of their glutathione with the same insults. Since iron can be a catalyst for hydroxyl radical formation, we stained cultures and found both iron staining and ferritin immunoreactivity increased with age. Increased iron correlated with protection by deferoxamine against H2O2 injury. The three injury paradigms each had a unique pattern of protection by antioxidants. Dimethylthiourea, a hydrophilic antioxidant, protected from all three insults. Trolox, a lipophilic antioxidant, protected older astrocytes from oxygen-glucose deprivation and glucose deprivation. Deferoxamine provided near complete protection from H2O2, partial protection from oxygen-glucose deprivation and no protection from glucose deprivation. As evidence of increasing oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation resulting from oxygen-glucose deprivation increased with age, assessed with cis-parinaric acid. The increasing sensitivity of ageing astrocytes to oxidative injury occurs while antioxidant defenses are maintained. Increased sensitivity to H2O2 or oxygen-glucose deprivation correlates with iron accumulation.

Vulnerability to glucose deprivation injury correlates with glutathione levels in astrocytes

Astrocyte death from glucose deprivation appears to be mediated by free radicals. Reduced glutathione (GSH) was used as a measure of antioxidant defenses in primary cultures of cortical astrocytes. Glucose deprivation caused progressive, near complete loss of reduced glutathione (GSH). Astrocytes were protected by increasing endogenous GSH levels. Depletion of GSH to 21.4 +/- 3.3% of controls by the glutathione synthetase inhibitor buthionine sulfoximine resulted in more rapid injury by glucose deprivation, yet depletion of glutathione alone did not kill astrocytes. Both enhanced lipid peroxidation and membrane rigidification were caused by glucose deprivation, both indicators of oxidative damage. Membrane peroxidation was detected as a 24 +/- 2% decrease in cis-parinaric acid fluorescence, membrane rgidification as a 6.3 +/- 0.8% increase in fluorescence anisotropy using diphenylhexatriene. Glucose deprivation under normoxic conditions may occur clinically in patients such as diabetics. In addition, oxidative damage in the setting of energy depletion occurs with other insults, including ischemic brain injury. Glucose deprivation may thus be a clinically relevant model of hypoglycemic astrocyte injury, and may be useful to investigate the effects of glutathione and redox modulation on second messenger systems and gene regulation.

Quantitation of metal isotope ratios by laser desorption time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Laser desorption time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LD/TOF-MS) is evaluated for the determination of stable metal isotope ratios. The isotope ratios of five metal ions (Cu, Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn) in atomic absorption standard solutions and two metal ions (Ca, Mg) in human serum samples are determined. With an existing LD/TOF-MS instrument we show that the technique can overcome the difficulties of the most commonly used methods for measuring metal isotope ratios: (1) all metals are ionizable without surface treatment, thus overcoming the major drawback of thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS); (2) there is no matrix involved to interfere with the metal ion detection, thus overcoming the major disadvantage of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS); (3) there is no interference from hydride ions, a major disadvantage of fast atom bombardment secondary ionization mass spectrometry; (4) a mixture of metals can be detected simultaneously using a single laser wavelength, overcoming the major disadvantage of resonance ionization mass spectrometry; (5) accuracy and precision comparable to ICPMS can be achieved with the current instrumentation; (6) precision comparable to TIMS is feasible; and most importantly (7) high precision can be achieved on very small quantities of material because the LD/TOF-MS instrument permits all masses to be monitored simultaneously and very small differences in isotope ratio can be detected.