Clinical validation of the "in silico" prediction of immunogenicity of a human recombinant therapeutic protein

Authors

E. Koren
Anne S. De Groot, University of Rhode IslandFollow
V. Jawa
K. D. Beck
T. Boone
D. Rivera
L. Li
D. Mytych
M. Koscec
D. Weeraratne
S. Swanson
W. Martin

Document Type

Article

Date of Original Version

2007

Abstract

Antibodies elicited by protein therapeutics can cause serious side effects in humans. We studied immunogenicity of a recombinant fusion protein (FPX) consisting of two identical, biologically active, peptides attached to human Fc fragment. EpiMatrix, an in silico epitope-mapping tool, predicted promiscuous T-cell epitope(s) within the 14-amino-acid carboxy-terminal region of the peptide portion of FPX. On administration of FPX in 76 healthy human subjects, 37% developed antibodies after a single injection. A memory T-cell response against the above carboxy-terminus of the peptide was observed in antibody-positive but not in antibody-negative subjects. Promiscuity of the predicted T-cell epitope(s) was confirmed by representation of all common HLA alleles in antibody-positive subjects. As predicted by EpiMatrix, HLA haplotype DRB1*0701/1501 was associated with the highest T-cell and antibody response. In conclusion, in silico prediction can be successfully used to identify Class II restricted T-cell epitopes within therapeutic proteins and predict immunogenicity thereof in humans.

Citation/Publisher Attribution

Koren, E., De Groot, A. S., Jawa, V., Beck, K. D., Boone, T., Rivera, D., Li, L., Mytych, D., Koscec, M., Weeraratne, D., Swanson, S., & Martin, W. (2007). Clinical validation of the 'in silico' prediction of immunogenicity of a human recombinant therapeutic protein. Clinical Immunology, 124(1), 26-32.

Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1521661607011333