title: Immunoglobulin Fc domain fusion to TRAIL significantly prolongs its plasma half-life and enhances its antitumor activity.
abstract: TRAIL (Apo2L) is a potent inducer of cell death. Interest in TRAIL has increased, following the observation that TRAIL can selectively kill a wide variety of human cancer cells without killing normal cells both in vitro and when grown as xenografts. Therefore, TRAIL has been proposed as a promising anticancer agent and currently is being tested in clinical trials. However, recombinant TRAIL has a very short plasma half-life, which limits its therapeutic potential. To overcome this limitation, we investigated the ability of the human IgG1 fragment crystallizable region (Fc) to enhance TRAIL stability. In this report, we show that Fc-TRAIL chimeric protein displays higher specific activity in vitro and a significantly longer half-life in mice than recombinant human TRAIL (rh-TRAIL). No short-term toxicity, especially liver toxicity, was observed. More importantly, Fc-TRAIL was much more effective in inhibiting tumor growth in a xenograft tumor model compared with rh-TRAIL. Our data suggest that fusion of Fc to TRAIL is able to improve the bioavailability and activity of TRAIL both in vitro and in vivo, and Fc-TRAIL may be explored for future clinical applications in cancer treatment and prevention.
authors.affiliation: Corresponding Author: Xiangwei Wu, Department of Clinical Cancer Prevention, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Unit 1013, Houston, TX 77030. xwwu@mdanderson.org.
authors.forename: Haizhen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jennifer S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Xiangwei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000378:metabolism*; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D006801:Humans; D007141:Immunoglobulin Fc Fragments / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics*; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary / Q000235:genetics; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D053221:TNF-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D023041:Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D007141:Immunoglobulin Fc Fragments; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D053221:TNF-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand; C505653:TNFSF10 protein, human; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha