Prospective design of anti-transferrin receptor bispecific antibodies for optimal delivery into the human brain

Abstract

Anti-transferrin receptor (TfR)-based bispecific antibodies have shown promise for boosting antibody uptake in the brain. Nevertheless, there are limited data on the molecular properties, including affinity required for successful development of TfR-based therapeutics. A complex nonmonotonic relationship exists between affinity of the anti-TfR arm and brain uptake at therapeutically relevant doses. However, the quantitative nature of this relationship and its translatability to humans is heretofore unexplored. Therefore, we developed a mechanistic pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) model for bispecific anti-TfR/BACE1 antibodies that accounts for antibody-TfR interactions at the blood-brain barrier (BBB) as well as the pharmacodynamic (PD) effect of anti-BACE1 arm. The calibrated model correctly predicted the optimal anti-TfR affinity required to maximize brain exposure of therapeutic antibodies in the cynomolgus monkey and was scaled to predict the optimal affinity of anti-TfR bispecifics in humans. Thus, this model provides a framework for testing critical translational predictions for anti-TfR bispecific antibodies, including choice of candidate molecule for clinical development.