Patent Application: US-49261709-A

Abstract:
an immunoglobulin preparation containing polyclonal igg - reactive antibodies , methods for preparing said preparation and pharmaceutical compositions containing it in admixture with suitable excipients , the use of said preparation or composition , alone or in combination with antiretroviral drugs , for the prophylaxis or treatment of hiv - 1 infection .

Description:
a normal human serum ( nhs ) ig fraction is identified which exhibits interaction with other igs involving intact antibody molecules under high ionic strength conditions ( 5 - fold concentrated pbs ); is enriched in igg 2 , and in particular in igg 2 dimers ; has low rf activity ; and displays neutralizing activity against hiv - 1 . this igg - reactive ab fraction enriched in igg 2 , which represents a first aspect of the invention , is prepared from normal human serum — i . e . serum from healthy individuals — through a process which comprises the following steps : ( a ) passing nhs through a matrix specifically reactive with human igg , particularly gammabind g sepharose , and recovering the matrix bound igg fraction and the matrix - unbound fraction or “ gammabind g flow - through ” ( gbf ) fraction ; ( b ) eluting the matrix - bound igg fraction obtained in ( a ), to obtain affinity purified igg ; ( c ) covalent binding of the affinity - purified igg obtained in ( b ), to cnbr - activated sepharose 4b , or to an equivalent matrix , to obtain igg - sepharose ; ( d ) contacting the gbf fraction obtained in ( a ) with igg - sepharose in 5 - fold concentrated pbs and eluting the igg - sepharose bound igs to obtain igg - reactive gbf abs . as used herein , 5 - fold concentrated pbs indicates the following buffer composition : 5 ×( 8 g nacl , 0 . 2 g kcl , 1 . 44 g na 2 hpo 4 , 0 . 24 g kh 2 po 4 in 1000 ml distilled h 2 o at ph 7 . 4 adjusted with hcl ). in a preferred embodiment , the igg - reactive gbf abs ( step ( d )) are combined into a single preparation with igg - reactive igg from nhs which are obtained through a process which comprises the following steps : ( a ′) passing nhs through a matrix able to bind human igg , particularly gammabind g sepharose matrix , and eluting the matrix - bound igg fraction to obtain affinity purified igg ; ( b ′) covalent binding of one aliquot of affinity purified igg obtained in ( a ′), to cnbr - activated sepharose 4b or an equivalent matrix , to obtain igg - sepharose ; ( c ′) contacting a second aliquot of affinity purified igg obtained in ( a ′), with igg - sepharose in 5 - fold concentrated pbs obtained in ( b ′), and eluting igg - sepharose bound igs to obtain igg - reactive igg . in a preferred embodiment , the total human igg is prepared by affinity chromatography of normal human serum on gammabind g sepharose , by loading normal human serum on gammabind g sepharose and eluting with an acid solution which is preferably 0 . 5 m acetic acid , ph 3 . in a further preferred embodiment , the total human igg - coupled resin is prepared by attaching the affinity - purified total human igg to cnbr - activated sepharose and is referred to as igg - sepharose . in a yet further preferred embodiment , the elution of the gbf antibodies bound to igg - sepharose is carried out with an acid solution , which is preferably 0 . 1 m citrate , ph 2 . 5 . in a yet further preferred embodiment , the igg - reactive gbf antibodies present a rheumatoid factor activity not exceeding by more than 10 % a cut off level of 25 u / ml , as determined by commercially available elisa , org 522s rheumatoid factor screen ( gti , brookfield , wis .). the igg present in the gbf fraction represents about 0 . 3 % of the total igg present in nhs . this indicates that not all of the iggs present in nhs are bound by gammabind g sepharose . the eluted igg is efficiently recovered by affinity purification on igg - sepharose , as set out above . in addition to residual igg , the gbf fraction contains igm and iga isotypes . igg subclass analysis of the igg - reactive antibodies separated from nhs ( igg - reactive igg ) and the gbf fractions ( igg - reactive gbf antibodies ) by specific igg subclass elisa assay showed that there is considerable enrichment in igg 2 compared to igg 1 in igg - reactive igg and in igg - reactive gbf antibodies . western blot analysis confirmed the abundance of igg 2 and also showed the presence of igg 2 dimers ( fig1 ). igg 2 is the main igg subclass generated by humans in response to polysaccharide antigens . igg 2 deficiency is frequently associated with an increased susceptibility to infection , therefore its replacement by means of the igg - reactive ab preparation of the invention will be beneficial in the prevention or treatment of infectious diseases . in particular , the igg - reactive antibody preparation of the invention was found to neutralize hiv - 1 infection . in a further embodiment , therefore , the invention provides a method of post - exposure prophylaxis or treatment of hiv - 1 infection which consists in administering to a subject in need thereof an antibody preparation as herein provided . a therapeutically effective daily dose of igg - reactive gbf antibodies or combined igg - reactive gbf antibodies and igg - reactive igg will be about 10 mg / kg body weight . the antibodies may be administered to a subject infected by hiv or at risk of developing hiv infection post - exposure to the virus . due to their hiv - 1 neutralization properties , the igg - reactive antibodies preparation described in this invention may be conveniently used to improve the anti - hiv - 1 activity of other immunoglobulin preparations , especially of intravenous immunoglobulin ( ivig ), which is a therapeutic preparation of normal human polyclonal igg obtained by pooling plasma from a large number of healthy blood donors . for the therapeutic use , the antibody preparation according to the invention may be formulated with pharmaceutically acceptable excipients such as buffering agents , stabilizing agents , solubilizers , diluents , isotonicity agents and the like . the subcutaneous administration route is preferred . however , the preparation can also be administered via the intravenous or intramuscular routes . fig1 . western blot data and densitometric quantitation data ( representative blot ) a : western blotting analysis was performed by methods that allow detection of igg 2 monomers and dimers . lane 1 — affinity purified igg ( 10 μg / well ); lane 2 — affinity purified igg ( 4 μg / well ); lane 3 — igg - reactive abs from nhs ( 4 μg / well ); lane 4 — igg - reactive abs from nhs ( 2 μg / well ); lane 5 — igg - reactive abs from the gbf fraction ( 2 μg / well ). b : densitometric quantitation of the western blot bands is presented as the percentage of the igg 2 dimers of the sum of integrated density ( id ) values of igg 2 monomers and dimers . results are presented as a mean ± sd from three independent experiments . quantification of the blots was performed using a gs - 710 calibrated imaging densitometer ( bio - rad ) and the image quant software program . fig2 . neutralization capacity of igg - reactive abs from the gbf fraction against infection of pbl by hiv - 1 bal strain the assay is a representative of three independent experiments ( each point is the mean ± standard error for four independent replicates ). fig3 . neutralization capacity of igg - reactive abs from the gbf fraction against infection of pbl by hiv - 1 jr - csf primary isolate . the assay is a representative of three independent experiments ( each point is the mean ± standard error for four independent replicates ). normal human serum from healthy donors was collected according to internal standard operating procedures . serum was pooled from 10 to 20 donors . the serum pool consisted of equal volumes of each donor &# 39 ; s serum ( usually 3 ml from each donor were used ). prior to affinity chromatography , serum was heat inactivated at 56 ° c . for 30 min and then filtered through a 0 . 2 μm - pore size millipore filter . 2 ml of normal human serum ( nhs ), i . e . about 18 . 0 mg of igg , was dialysed by centrifugation ( mw limit 50k da ) in a binding buffer , and then was loaded into a 2 . 0 ml gammabind g sepharose column . the column capacity was 18 mg of human igg per 1 ml of drained gel . the gbf fraction thus obtained was dialysed and concentrated by centrifugation in pbs before being used for measurement of ig class concentration by capture elisa . gbf fractions with igg concentrations of at least 10 μg per ml were used for the separation of igg - reactive abs . separation of igg - reactive antibodies from total nhs igg ( affinity purified on gammabind g sepharose ), and from the gbf ( gammabind g flowthrough ) fraction was performed on igg - sepharose ( igg - coupled to cnbr - activated sepharose 4b ), as presented in the above disclosure of the invention . samples of affinity purified igg - reactive abs obtained from six independent runs were concentrated by ultrafiltration ( ym - 50 , cut - off mw 50 , 000 ). ig concentration was adjusted to 100 μg per ml for the igg - reactive antibody preparations obtained both from total nhs igg and from the gbf fraction . obtained igg - reactive antibodies were tested for the presence of igg 2 monomers and dimers , rf ( rheumatoid factor ) activity and for the ability to neutralize hiv - 1 infection in vitro . it should be noted that the concentration of igg - reactive gbf antibodies was expressed as that of the total ig content and thus , represents the sum of all isotypes . two preparations ( denoted as “ prep 1 ” and “ prep 2 ”) of igg - reactive gbf abs obtained from two different serum pools were used in some of the virus neutralization assays . these preparations differed in the yield and proportional recovery of igg , igm and iga . however , the magnitude of such differences was consistent with normal experimental variation . the concentrations of the individual igg subclasses were measured by peliclass ™ human igg subclass elisa kit ( clb , amsterdam ) according to the manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions . igg subclass concentration of igg - reactive gbf antibodies was expressed as μg / ml of serum used for ig separation . to examine heavy ( h ) and light chains ( l ), the igg - reactive abs obtained from the gbf fraction and the igg purified on gammabind g sepharose were analyzed by reducing sds - page on 10 % gel . igg monomers and dimers were analyzed by denaturing but non - reducing sds - page on 4 % tris - glycine gels as described previously [ 20 ]. the sds - page - resolved antibodies were electrophoretically transferred to a nitrocellulose membrane . nonspecific sites were blocked by incubating the membrane for 1 h at room temperature in pbs containing 0 . 2 % ( v / v ) tween 20 and 5 % ( w / v ) nonfat dried milk . for immunodetection , mouse mabs specific for human γ1 and γ2 were used as a primary reagent for overnight incubation at 4 ° c . after washing , the blot was probed with peroxidase - conjugated goat anti - mouse igg for 1 h at room temperature . detection was performed using the supersignal substrate system ( pierce ) ( as recommended by the manufacturer ). peripheral blood lymphocytes ( pbl ) from uninfected donors were prepared by ficoll - hypaque density centrifugation from heparinised blood . these fresh pbl , at a concentration of 2 × 10 6 cells per ml , were stimulated for 2 days with 5 μg of pha per ml in rpmi medium containing 20 u / ml of recombinant interleukin - 2 , 20 % fetal calf serum , 2 % penicillin - streptomycin and 1 % l - glutamine . cultures were carried out in tissue culture flasks incubated in 5 % co 2 at 37 ° c . after 3 days , the cells were readjusted to a concentration of 2 × 10 6 cells per ml in the medium described above , except that the medium lacked pha and was supplemented with 20 u / ml of recombinant interleukin - 2 . a defined volume of stimulated pbl cells ( 2 × 10 6 cells per ml ) was incubated with each of the following six test items ,— with three different concentrations of igg - reactive abs separated from the gbf fraction ( 2 μg / ml , 0 . 6 μg / ml and 0 . 3 μg / ml ), with anti - ccr5 ig ( 10 μg / ml ) [ 22 ], with mab 2g12 [ 3 ] as positive control ( 10 μg / ml ), and with medium alone as negative control , for 30 min at 37 ° c . before adding virus . concentrations of 0 . 5 ng / ml of hiv - 1 bal strain , of hiv - 1 ndk ( x4 - tropic isolate ) and of hiv - 1 jr - csf ( r5 - tropic isolate ) were used . incubation was continued for 3 h at 37 ° c . in 5 % co 2 . the cells were then washed and cultured in rpmi medium supplemented with 20 u / ml of recombinant interleukin - 2 and 10 % fetal calf serum . after 3 or 6 days of culture , when the p24 concentration was between 750 and 1000 ng / ml , the supernatants were collected and the virus was lysed by triton x - 100 . the supernatants were then quantified for viral production by measuring p24 release using a p24 antigen capture elisa ( hiv - 1 core profile elisa , dupont de nemours , les ullis , france ). the percent neutralization was calculated as [ 1 −( mean value of p24 in the presence abs / mean value of p24 in the absence of abs )]× 100 . evaluation by reducing sds - page of the igg purified on gammabind g sepharose ( gb ) used for coupling to cnbr - activated sepharose ( denoted as igg - sepharose ) revealed no contamination with other ig isotypes ( fig1 a , lane 3 ). a comparative analysis , by ig class , of igg - reactive antibodies purified on igg sepharose recovered from pooled nhs and from the gb flowthrough ( gbf ) fraction is shown in table 1 . the proportion of igg , igm and iga isotypes recovered from nhs on igg - sepharose as igg - reactive antibodies was 0 . 33 %, 0 . 76 % and 0 . 21 % of the loaded ig isotypes , respectively ( table 1 ). for the gbf fraction , the proportion of each of the loaded igg , igm and iga isotypes which were recovered as igg - reactive antibodies was 15 %, 1 . 65 % and 0 . 45 %, respectively ( table 1 ). some decrease in igm and iga concentration in the gbf fraction , compared to nhs , was noted . when the concentration of loaded igg was lower , as was the case for the gbf fraction compared to nhs , the proportional recovery of igg - reactive igm and iga was greater for the gbf fraction ( 1 . 65 % and 0 . 45 %, respectively ) than that from nhs ( 0 . 76 % and 0 . 21 %, respectively ) ( table 1 ). one explanation might be that igg has the highest affinity for igg - sepharose . small variations in the yield and proportional recovery of different ig isotypes between different serum pools were observed . the reducing sds - page , performed for igg - reactive antibodies obtained from nhs on igg sepharose , revealed , in accordance with the data obtained by capture elisa relative to isotype - matched standards ( table 1 ), a predominant content of igg and a weak band corresponding to μ heavy chain ( fig1 a , lane 2 ). monomers and dimers were observed in igg - reactive abs obtained from nhs ( fig1 b , lane 2 and 3 ) and in those obtained from the gbf fraction ( fig1 b , lane 4 ), using anti - human γ2 - specific ab . however , no bands corresponding to igg 2 dimers were observed in gammabind g sepharose purified igg , for the amount applied ( fig1 b , lane 1 ). also , no dimers were found in the igg 1 subclass by western blotting using γ1 - specific abs , either for nhs - derived igg - reactive antibodies ( fig1 c , lane 2 ), for gbf fraction igg - reactive antibodies ( fig1 c , lane 3 ), or for purified igg ( fig1 c , lane 1 ). the data presented also indicate that the band migrating at the position for monomer igg 1 was most prominent for affinity purified igg ( fig1 c , lane 1 ), in comparison to the igg - reactive abs ( fig1 c , lane 2 and 3 ). igg subclass distribution in igg - reactive abs obtained from nhs and in those obtained from the gbf fraction , measured by quantitative elisa , is presented in table 2 . these data revealed that in contrast to the characteristic dominance of igg 1 subclass in pooled nhs , the igg - reactive antibodies obtained from nhs and from the gbf fraction each showed a dominance of igg 2 . thus , a higher level of igg 2 is a characteristic of igg - reactive abs irrespective of their source . reference ranges for igg subclasses in healthy individuals were from peliclass ™ elisa kit product information . igg subclass content is presented for the pooled normal human serum ( nhs ) from which the igg - reactive abs were separated . the concentration of igg - reactive abs for each igg sub - class is given per ml of serum from which the antibodies were separated . for igg - reactive antibodies from nhs , values are presented as mean ± sd of three independent experiments , and for igg - reactive antibodies from the gbf fraction , as the mean of two experiments igg - reactive antibodies from the gbf fraction prevent infection of pbl by hiv - 1 bal and by the primary isolates hiv - 1 jr - csf and hiv - 1 ndk . virus neutralization assays were performed with the hiv - 1 bal strain and the primary isolates hiv - 1 jr - csf and hiv - 1 ndk . fig2 and fig3 display the neutralizing activity of igg - reactive antibodies from the gbf fraction against hiv - 1 bal and hiv - 1 jr - csf infection of pbl , respectively . the results of the neutralization assays are expressed as percent reduction in p24 release . the inhibition of infectivity by igg - reactive antibodies isolated from the gbf fraction is dose - dependent ( fig2 and fig3 ). there is almost complete virus neutralization at 2 μg / ml , while at 0 . 3 μg / ml inhibition of infectivity is comparable to that by 10 μg / ml of anti - ccr5 ig ( fig2 ). this natural antibody to ccr5 , affinity purified from ivig , is known to be able to block hiv - 1 infection at the concentration tested [ 22 ]. virus neutralization by igg - reactive antibodies was comparable to that by the mab 2g12 , which was tested at a concentration of 10 μg / ml only ( fig2 and fig3 ). the concentration of mab 2gg12 was selected based on ic50 and ic90 data obtained in our laboratory being valid for most clades tested . the mab 2g12 is a broadly and potently neutralizing human monoclonal antibody which is directed against a unique carbohydrate - dependent epitope on gp120 and which inhibits gp120 interaction with ccr5 [ 3 ]. igg - reactive antibodies obtained from the gbf fraction of two different pools of nhs ( prep 1 and prep 2 ), were tested for their ability to neutralize hiv - 1 ndk and hiv - 1 jr - csf . as shown in table 3 , the ic50 of prep 1 and of prep 2 for hiv - 1 ndk was 0 . 6 μg / ml and 1 . 8 μg / ml , respectively , and the ic50 of prep 1 and of prep 2 for hiv - 1 jr - csf was 0 . 7 μg / ml and 0 . 4 μg / ml , respectively . these data indicate a low variation in neutralization activity between different preparations . arendrup m , hansen j e , clausen h , nielsen c , mathiesen l r , nielsen j o . antibody to histo - blood group a antigen neutralizes hiv produced by lymphocytes from blood group a donors but not from blood group b donors . aids 1991 ; 5 : 441 - 444 . preece a f , strahan k m , devitt j , yamamoto f , gustafsson k . expression of abo or related antigenic carbohydrates on viral envelopes leads to neutralization in the presence of serum containing specific natural antibodies and complement . blood 2002 ; 99 : 2477 - 2482 . metlas r , srdic t , veljkovic v . anti - igg antibodies from sera of healthy individuals neutralize hiv - 1 primary isolates . curr hiv res 2007 ; 5 : 261 - 265 . metlas r , trajkovic d , srdic t , veljkovic v , colombatti a . human immunodeficiency virus v3 peptide - reactive antibodies are present in normal hiv - negative sera . aids res hum retroviruses 1999 ; 15 : 671 - 677 . metlas r , trajkovic d , srdic t , veljkovic v , colombatti a . anti - v3 and anti - igg antibodies of healthy individuals share complementarity structures . j acquir immune defic syndr 1999 ; 21 : 266 - 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infected patients . j virol 2001 ; 75 : 5421 - 5424 . wright a , lamm m e , huang y t . excretion of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 through polarized epithelium by immunoglobulin a . j virol 2008 ; 82 : 11526 - 35 . kato k , lian l y , barsukov i l , et al . model for the complex between protein g and antibody fc fragment in solution . structure 1995 ; 15 : 79 - 85 . kohler h . superantibodies - synergy of innate and acquired immunity . applied biochemistry and biotechnology 2000 ; 83 : karry s , zouali m . identification of the b cell superantigen binding site of hiv - 1 gp120 . proc natl acad sci usa 1997 ; 94 : 1356 - 1360 martinez v , costagliola d , bonduelle o , et al . combination of hiv - 1 - specific cd4 th1 cell responses and igg2 antibodies is the best predictor for persistence of long - term nonprogression . j infect dis 2005 ; 191 : 2053 - 2063 . reitan s k and hannestad k . immunoglobulin heavy chain constant regions regulate immunity and tolerance to idiotypes of antibody variable regions . proc natl acad sci u s a . 2002 ; 99 ( 11 ): 7588 - 7593 . torres m , may r , scharff m d , casadevall a . variable - region - identical antibodies differing in isotype demonstrate differences in fine specificity and idiotype . journal of immunology 2005 ; 174 : 2132 - 2142 . beenhouwer d o , yoo e m , lai c w , rocha m a , morrison s l . human immunoglobulin g2 ( igg2 ) and igg4 , but not igg1 or igg3 , protect mice against cryptococcus neoformans infection . infect immun . march 2007 ; 75 : 1424 - 1435 .