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Validation of a Dendritic Cell and CD4+ T Cell Restimulation Assay Contributing to the Immunogenicity Risk Evaluation of Biotherapeutics.

ABSTRACT: Immunogenicity, defined as the ability to provoke an immune response, can be either wanted (i.e., vaccines) or unwanted. The latter refers to an immune response to protein or peptide therapeutics, characterized by the production of anti-drug antibodies, which may affect the efficacy and/or the safety profiles of these drugs. Consequently, evaluation of the risk of immunogenicity early in the development of biotherapeutics is of critical importance for defining their efficacy and safety profiles. Here, we describe and validate a fit-for-purpose FluoroSpot-based in vitro assay for the evaluation of drug-specific T cell responses. A panel of 24 biotherapeutics with a wide range of clinical anti-drug antibody response rates were tested in this assay. We demonstrated that using suitable cutoffs and donor cohort sizes, this assay could identify most of the compounds with high clinical immunogenicity rates (71% and 78% for sensitivity and specificity, respectively) while we characterized the main sources of assay variability. Overall, these data indicate that the dendritic cell and CD4+ T cell restimulation assay published herein could be a valuable tool to assess the risk of drug-specific T cell responses and contribute to the selection of clinical candidates in early development.

SUBMITTER: Siegel M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9781343 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Validation of a Dendritic Cell and CD4+ T Cell Restimulation Assay Contributing to the Immunogenicity Risk Evaluation of Biotherapeutics.

Siegel Michel M Steiner Guido G Franssen Linnea C LC Carratu Francesca F Herron James J Hartman Katharina K Looney Cary M CM Ducret Axel A Bray-French Katharine K Rohr Olivier O Hickling Timothy P TP Smith Noel N Marban-Doran Céline C

Pharmaceutics 20221201 12

Immunogenicity, defined as the ability to provoke an immune response, can be either wanted (i.e., vaccines) or unwanted. The latter refers to an immune response to protein or peptide therapeutics, characterized by the production of anti-drug antibodies, which may affect the efficacy and/or the safety profiles of these drugs. Consequently, evaluation of the risk of immunogenicity early in the development of biotherapeutics is of critical importance for defining their efficacy and safety profiles. ...[more]

PMID: 36559166

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Project description:IntroductionImmunogenicity refers to the ability of a substance, such as a therapeutic drug, to elicit an immune response. While beneficial in vaccine development, undesirable immunogenicity can compromise the safety and efficacy of therapeutic proteins by inducing anti-drug antibodies (ADAs). These ADAs can reduce drug bioavailability and alter pharmacokinetics, necessitating comprehensive immunogenicity risk assessments starting at early stages of drug development. Given the complexity of immunogenicity, an integrated approach is essential, as no single assay can universally recapitulate the immune response leading to the formation of anti-drug antibodies.MethodsTo better understand the Dendritic Cell (DC) contribution to immunogenicity, we developed two flow cytometry-based assays: the DC internalization assay and the DC activation assay. Monocyte-derived dendritic cells (moDCs) were generated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and differentiated over a five-day period. The internalization assay measured the accumulation rate of therapeutic antibodies within moDCs, while the activation assay assessed the expression of DC activation markers such as CD40, CD80, CD86, CD83, and DC-SIGN (CD209). To characterize these two assays further, we used a set of marketed therapeutic antibodies.ResultsThe study highlights that moDCs differentiated for 5 days from freshly isolated monocytes were more prone to respond to external stimuli. The internalization assay has been shown to be highly sensitive to the molecule tested, allowing the use of only 4 donors to detect small but significant differences. We also demonstrated that therapeutic antibodies were efficiently taken up by moDCs, with a strong correlation with their peptide presentation on MHC-II. On the other hand, by monitoring DC activation through a limited set of activation markers including CD40, CD83, and DC-SIGN, the DC activation assay has the potential to compare a series of compounds. These two assays provide a more comprehensive understanding of DC function in the context of immunogenicity, highlighting the importance of both internalization and activation processes in ADA development.DiscussionThe DC internalization and activation assays described here address key gaps in existing immunogenicity assessment methods by providing specific and reliable measures of DC function. The assays enhance our ability to pre-clinically evaluate the immunogenic potential of biotherapeutics, thereby improving their safety and efficacy. Future work should focus on further validating these assays and integrating them into a holistic immunogenicity risk assessment framework.

Project description:The appended raw files, csv files and other documents were deposited into the public domain in support for the publication "Development and characterization of a dendritic cell internalization assay contributing to the immunogenicity risk evaluation of biotherapeutics" by Michel Siegel, Aman Padamsey, Anna-Lena Bolender, Patrick Hargreaves, Axel Ducret, Johannes Fraidling, Katharina Hartmann, Cary M. Looney, Olivier Rohr, Tim Hickling, Thomas Kraft, Celine Marban-Doran. The abstract reads as follows: Assessing immunogenicity risks during the development of biotherapeutics is crucial. Given the complexity of immunogenicity - influenced by myriad biological, immunological, and patient-specific factors - Individual risk assessments are poorly predictive, necessitating a holistic approach to immunogenicity risk assessment. Anti-drug antibody production starts with the internalization of drugs by antigen presenting cells such as dendritic cells, which present drug-derived peptides to CD4+ T cells as peptide-MHC-II complexes. Assessing dendritic cell function is common in preclinical immunogenicity risk assessments, including presentation of potential T cell epitopes using the MAPPs assay. However, other aspects of dendritic cell biology are often overlooked. To better understand the dendritic cell contribution to immunogenicity, we developed two flow cytometry-based assays: the dendritic cell internalization assay and the dendritic cell activation assay. Our assay addresses two issues with existing methods for measuring internalization into antigen presenting cells; lack of specificity for the cellular compartment of internalization or the recycling of internalized antibodies, and the increased risk of aggregation, when using a large payload for the detection of antibodies, that would lead to activation of irrelevant scavenger receptors in the context of dendritic cell internalization. We also developed a DC activation assay, improving on various aspects of its relevance for immunogenicity risk assessment compared to previously published protocols. Additionally, we identified DC-SIGN (CD209) and CD80 as crucial for understanding dendritic cell activation mechanisms leading to immunogenicity. To evaluate the performance of these two assays, we used a set of marketed therapeutic antibodies. The dendritic cell internalization assay revealed differences in internalization rates for marketed therapeutic antibodies, even those targeting the same antigen (e.g. PCSK9-targeting antibodies: bococizumab, evolocumab and alirocumab or TNF-targeting antibodies: adalimumab and infliximab), potentially accounting for differential immunogenicity liabilities. The DC activation assay also showed different patterns of DC activation between bococizumab, which rapidly accumulates within the lysosomes, and the other PCSK9-targeting antibodies (evolocumab and alirocumab), giving new insights into specific immunogenicity profiles. Overall, this study provides valuable information for future risk assessments of therapeutic antibodies in development. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1406804 The data deposited here were used to generate the supplementary figure 3.

Project description:Immune evasion is an important hallmark of cancer ensured by diverse strategies, including immunosuppression and downregulation of antigen presentation. Here, to restore immunogenicity of cancer cells, we employed the minimal gene regulatory network of highly immunogenic type 1 conventional dendritic cells (cDC1) to reprogram cancer cells into professional antigen presenting cells (APCs). We showed that enforced expression of PU.1, IRF8 and BATF3 (PIB) was sufficient to induce cDC1 phenotype in 33 cell lines derived from human and mouse hematological and solid tumors. PIB gradually modified the cancer cell transcriptional and epigenetic program imposing global antigen presentation and cDC1 gene signatures within 9 days. cDC1 reprogramming restored the expression of antigen presentation complexes as well as co-stimulatory molecules at the cell surface, leading to the presentation of endogenous antigens on MHC-I, and to CD8+ T cell mediated killing. Functionally, tumor- APCs acquired the ability to uptake and process exogenous proteins and dead cells, secreted inflammatory cytokines and cross-presented antigens to naïve CD8+ T cells. Importantly, tumor-APCs were efficiently generated at the single cell level from primary cancer cells of 7 solid tumors that presented antigens to memory and naïve T-cells, as well as to activated patient-specific intra-tumoral lymphocytes. Alongside antigen presentation, tumor-APCs harboring TP53, KRAS and PTEN mutations showed impaired tumorigenicity in vitro and in vivo. Finally, using in vivo mouse models of melanoma, we showed that intra-tumoral injection of tumor-APCs promoted lymphoid infiltration, delayed tumor growth and increased survival. The anti-tumor immunity elicited by tumor-APCs was synergistic with immune checkpoint inhibitors enabling tumor eradication. Our approach combines cDC1’s antigen processing and presenting abilities with endogenous generation of tumor antigens and serves as a platform for the development of novel immunotherapies based on endowed antigen presentation in cancer cells.

Dataset Information

Validation of a Dendritic Cell and CD4+ T Cell Restimulation Assay Contributing to the Immunogenicity Risk Evaluation of Biotherapeutics.

Publications

Validation of a Dendritic Cell and CD4+ T Cell Restimulation Assay Contributing to the Immunogenicity Risk Evaluation of Biotherapeutics.

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