Biological Evaluation of Maytansinoid-Based Site-Specific Antibody-Drug Conjugate Produced by Fully Chemical Conjugation Approach: AJICAP®

Abstract

Background: Trastuzumab-emtansine (T-DM1, commercial name: Kadcyla) is well-known antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) and was first approved for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive metastatic breast cancer. This molecular format consisting of trastuzumab and maytansinoid payload (emtansine) is very simple, however, T-DM1 has wide heterogeneity due to non-specific conjugation, lowering its therapeutic index (TI). Methods: To overcome this issue during the chemical modification of the random conjugation approach to generate T-DM1, we developed a novel chemical conjugation technology termed “AJICAP®” for modification of antibodies in site-specific manner by IgG Fc-affinity peptide based reagents. Results: In this study, we compared site-specific maytansinoid-based ADCs synthesized by AJICAP and T-DM1 in rat safety studies. The results indicated an increase in the maximum tolerated dose, demonstrating an expansion of the AJICAP-ADC therapeutic index compared with that of commercially available T-DM1. Gram scale preparation of this AJICAP-ADC and the initial stability study are also described. Conclusions: Trastuzumab-AJICAP-maytansinoid produced by this unique chemical conjugation methodology showed higher stability and tolerability than commercially available T-DM1.

Keywords

• antibody drug conjugate
• maytansinoid
• toxicology study
• site-specific conjugation
• ajicap