Introduction: Erwinase® (native Erwinia chrysanthemi L-Asparaginase (nErA)) is an approved second-line treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in children and adolescents, who develop hypersensitivity or neutralising antibodies to E.coli derived L-Asparaginases (ASNases). However, nErA has a short in vivo half-life requiring frequent dosing schedules in patients. In this study, nErA was covalently conjugated to PEG molecules with the aim of extending its half-life in vivo.
Methods: Firstly, efficacy of this novel product PEG-nErA was investigated on human ALL cell lines (Jurkat, CCRF-CEM and CCRF-HSB2), in vitro. Secondly, its pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) characteristics were determined, in vivo (12 rats in each group). Results. It was found that the specific activity (U/mg of enzyme) and the kinetic constant (KM) of nErA remained unaltered post PEGylation. PEG-nErA was shown to have similar cytotoxicity to nErA (IC50: 0.06-0.17 U/mL) on human ALL cell lines, in vitro. Further, when compared to nErA, PEG-nErA showed a significantly improved half-life in vivo, which meant that L-Asparagine (Asn) levels in plasma remained depleted for up to 25 days with a four-fold lower dose (100 U/kg) compared with 72 h for nErA at 400 U/kg dose.
Conclusion: Overall, this next generation product PEG-nErA (with improved PK and PD characteristics compared to nErA) would bring a significant advantage to the therapeutic needs of ALL patients and should be further explored in clinical trials.
Keywords: ALL; Erwinia chrysanthemi; Escherichia coli; Half-life; L-Asparaginase; Leukaemia; PEG; Pharmacodynamic; Pharmacokinetic; Therapeutic enzyme.
© 2021. The Author(s).