Chemical Modification of Cysteine with 3-Arylpropriolonitrile Improves the In Vivo Stability of Albumin-Conjugated Urate Oxidase Therapeutic Protein

Biomedicines

Byungseop Yang¹  Inchan Kwon¹ 

[1] School of Materials Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Gwangju 61005, Korea;

关键词: thiol-maleimide;    3-arylpropiolonitriles;    half-life extension;    site-specific albumin conjugation;    urate oxidase;    therapeutic protein;   

DOI  :  10.3390/biomedicines9101334

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

3-arylpropiolonitriles (APN) are promising alternatives to maleimide for chemo-selective thiol conjugation, because the reaction product has a remarkably hydrolytic stability compared with that of thiol-maleimide reactions in vitro. However, whether cysteine modification with APN enhances stability in vivo compared to thiol-maleimide reactions remains unclear, probably due to the too short in vivo serum half-life of a protein to observe significant cleavage of thiol-maleimide/-APN reaction products. The conjugation of human serum albumin (HSA) to a therapeutic protein reportedly prolongs the in vivo serum half-life. To evaluate the in vivo stability of the thiol-APN reaction product, we prepared HSA-conjugated Arthrobacter globiformis urate oxidase (AgUox), a therapeutic protein for gout treatment. Site-specific HSA conjugation to AgUox was achieved by combining site-specific incorporation of tetrazine containing an amino acid (frTet) into AgUox and a crosslinker containing trans-cyclooctene and either thiol-maleimide (AgUox-MAL-HSA) or -APN chemistry (AgUox-APN-HSA). Substantial cleavage of the thioester of AgUox-MAL-HSA was observed in vitro, whereas no cleavage of the thiol-APN product of AgUox-APN-HSA was observed. Furthermore, the in vivo serum half-life of AgUox-APN-HSA in the late phase was significantly longer than that of AgUox-MAL-HSA. Overall, these results demonstrate that the thiol-APN chemistry enhanced the in vivo stability of the HSA-conjugated therapeutic protein.

【 授权许可】

Unknown