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Structure-Activity Profiles of Ab-Derived TNF Fusion Proteins¹

Stefan Bauer^2,*, Nicole Adrian, Eliane Fischer^*, Sascha Kleber^*, Frank Stenner^*, Andreas Wadle^*, Natalie Fadle, Andy Zoellner, Rita Bernhardt, Alexander Knuth^*, Lloyd J. Old and Christoph Renner^*

^* Oncology Department, UniversitätsSpital Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland; Medical Department I, Universität des Saarlandes, Homburg/Saar, Germany; Naturwissenschaftlich-Technische Fakultät III, Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, Germany; and Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10158

TNF application in humans is limited by severe side effects, including life-threatening symptoms of shock. Therefore, TNF can be successfully applied as a tumor therapeutic reagent only under conditions that prevent its systemic action. To overcome this limitation, genetic fusion of TNF to tumor-selective Abs is a favored strategy to increase site-specific cytokine targeting. Because wild-type TNF displays its bioactivity as noncovalently linked homotrimer, the challenge is to define structural requirements for a TNF-based immunokine format with optimized structure-activity profile. We compared toxicity and efficacy of a dimerized CH2/CH3 truncated IgG1-TNF fusion protein and a single-chain variable fragment-coupled TNF monomer recognizing fibroblast-activating protein. The former construct preserves its dimeric structure stabilized by the natural disulfide bond IgG1 hinge region, while the latter trimerizes under native conditions. Analysis of complex formation of wild-type TNF and of both fusion proteins with TNFR type 1 (TNF-R1) using surface plasmon resonance correlated well with in vitro and in vivo toxicity data. There is strong evidence that TNF subunits in a trimeric state display similar toxicity profiles despite genetic fusion to single-chain variable fragment domains. However, LD₅₀ of either immunodeficient BALB/c nu/nu or immunocompetent BALB/c mice was significantly decreased following administration of TNF in the formation of IgG1-derived dimeric fusion protein. Reduction of unspecific peripheral complexation of TNF-R1 resulted in higher anticancer potency by immunotargeting of fibroblast-activating protein-expressing xenografts. The broader therapeutic window of the IgG1-derived TNF fusion protein favors the dimeric TNF-immunokine format for systemic TNF-based tumor immunotherapy.