Modified antibody compositions, methods of making and using thereof

Abstract

The present disclosure provides modified antibodies which contain an antibody or antibody fragment (AB) modified with a masking moiety (MM). Such modified antibodies can be further coupled to a cleavable moiety (CM), resulting in activatable antibodies (AAs), wherein the CM is capable of being cleaved, reduced, photolysed, or otherwise modified. AAs can exhibit an activatable conformation such that the AB is more accessible to a target after, for example, removal of the MM by cleavage, reduction, or photolysis of the CM in the presence of an agent capable of cleaving, reducing, or photolysing the CM. The disclosure further provides methods of making and using such modified antibodies and activatable antibodies.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Applications Nos. 61 / 144,110, filed Jan. 12, 2009; 61 / 144,105, filed Jan. 12, 2009; 61 / 249,441, filed Oct. 7, 2009; and 61 / 249,416, filed Oct. 7, 2009; which applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.SEQUENCE LISTING[0002]The instant application contains a Sequence Listing which has been submitted via EFS-Web and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Said ASCII copy, created on Apr. 1, 2010, is named 36383724.txt and is 218,125 bytes in size.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Protein-based therapies have changed the face of medicine, finding application in a variety of different diseases. In particular antibody-based therapies have proven effective treatments for some diseases but in some cases, toxicities due to broad target expression have limited their therapeutic effectiveness.[0004]As with any drugs, however, the need and desire for drugs having improved specifici...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]In one aspect, the present disclosure provides a modified antibody comprising an antibody or antibody fragment (AB), capable of specifically binding its target, coupled to a masking moiety (MM), wherein the coupling of the MM reduces the ability of the AB to bind its target such that that the dissociation constant (Kd) of the AB coupled to the MM towards the target is at least 100 times greater, at least 1000 times greater, or at least 10,000 times greater than the Kd of the AB not coupled to the MM towards the target.

[0008]In another aspect, the present disclosure provides a modified antibody comprising an antibody or antibody fragment (AB), capable of specifically binding its target, coupled to a masking moiety (MM), wherein the coupling of the MM to the AB reduces the ability of the AB to bind the target by at least 90%, as compared to the ability of the AB not coupled to the MM to bind the target, when assayed in vitro using a target displacement assay. Such coupling of the MM to the AB reduces the ability of the AB to bind its target for at least 12 hours or for at least 24 hours or for at least 72 hours.

[0011]In some embodiments, the MM of the modified antibody reduces the AB's ability to bind its target by specifically binding to the antigen-binding domain of the AB. Such binding can be non-covalent. The MM of the modified antibody can reduce the AB's ability to bind its target allosterically or sterically. In specific embodiments, the MM of the modified antibody does not comprise more than 50% amino acid sequence similarity to a natural binding partner of the AB.

Problems solved by technology

Such coupling of the MM to the AB reduces the ability of the AB to bind its target for at least 12 hours or for at least 24 hours or for at least 72 hours.

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