Development of Fc-Fused Cocaine Hydrolase for Cocaine Addiction Treatment: Catalytic and Pharmacokinetic Properties

AAPS J. 2018 Mar 19;20(3):53. doi: 10.1208/s12248-018-0214-9.

Abstract

Cocaine abuse is a worldwide public health and social problem without a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medication. Accelerating cocaine metabolism that produces biologically inactive metabolites by administration of an efficient cocaine hydrolase (CocH) has been recognized as a promising strategy for cocaine abuse treatment. However, the therapeutic effects of CocH are limited by its short biological half-life (e.g., 8 h or shorter in rats). In this study, we designed and prepared a set of Fc-fusion proteins constructed by fusing Fc(M3) with CocH3 at the N-terminus of CocH3. A linker between the two protein domains was optimized to improve both the biological half-life and catalytic activity against cocaine. It has been concluded that Fc(M3)-G6S-CocH3 not only has fully retained the catalytic efficiency of CocH3 against cocaine but also has the longest biological half-life (e.g., ∼ 136 h in rats) among all of the long-acting CocHs identified so far. A single dose (0.2 mg/kg, IV) of Fc(M3)-G6S-CocH3 was able to significantly attenuate 15 mg/kg cocaine-induced hyperactivity for at least 11 days (268 h) after the Fc(M3)-G6S-CocH3 administration.

Keywords: cocaine; drug abuse; metabolic enzyme; protein engineering.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • CHO Cells
  • Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases / chemistry*
  • Catalysis
  • Cocaine-Related Disorders / drug therapy*
  • Cricetulus
  • Half-Life
  • Immunoglobulin Fc Fragments / chemistry*
  • Male
  • Protein Engineering
  • Rats, Sprague-Dawley
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / pharmacokinetics
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / therapeutic use*
  • Recombinant Proteins / chemistry*

Substances

  • Immunoglobulin Fc Fragments
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins
  • Recombinant Proteins
  • Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases
  • cocaine hydrolase