1. Academic Validation
  2. Antibody semorinemab reduces tau pathology in a transgenic mouse model and engages tau in patients with Alzheimer's disease

Antibody semorinemab reduces tau pathology in a transgenic mouse model and engages tau in patients with Alzheimer's disease

  • Sci Transl Med. 2021 May 12;13(593):eabb2639. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abb2639.
Gai Ayalon 1 Seung-Hye Lee 1 Oskar Adolfsson 2 Corinne Foo-Atkins 3 Jasvinder K Atwal 1 Mira Blendstrup 4 Helen Booler 5 Joseph Bravo 5 Robert Brendza 1 Flavia Brunstein 6 Ruby Chan 7 Priya Chandra 8 Jessica A Couch 3 Akash Datwani 9 Barthélemy Demeule 10 Danielle DiCara 11 Rich Erickson 9 James A Ernst 7 Oded Foreman 12 Dongping He 13 Isidro Hötzel 11 Michael Keeley 3 Michael C M Kwok 7 Julien Lafrance-Vanasse 7 Han Lin 1 Yanmei Lu 13 Wilman Luk 13 Paul Manser 14 Andreas Muhs 2 Hai Ngu 12 Andrea Pfeifer 2 Maria Pihlgren 2 Gautham K Rao 5 Kimberly Scearce-Levie 1 Stephen P Schauer 15 William B Smith 16 Hilda Solanoy 1 Edmond Teng 4 Kristin R Wildsmith 15 Daniela Bumbaca Yadav 17 Yong Ying 9 Reina N Fuji 18 Geoffrey A Kerchner 4
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Neuroscience, Genentech Inc., San Francisco, CA 94080, USA.
  • 2 AC Immune SA, EPFL Innovation Park, Building B, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
  • 3 Project Team Leadership, Genentech Inc., San Francisco, CA 94080, USA.
  • 4 Department of Early Clinical Development, Genentech Inc., San Francisco, CA 94080, USA.
  • 5 Department of Safety Assessment, Genentech Inc., San Francisco, CA 94080, USA.
  • 6 Department of Licensing and Early Development Safety, Genentech Inc., San Francisco, CA 94080, USA.
  • 7 Department of Protein Chemistry, Genentech Inc., San Francisco, CA 94080, USA.
  • 8 Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Genentech Inc., San Francisco, CA 94080, USA.
  • 9 Department of Bioanalytical Sciences, Genentech Inc., San Francisco, CA 94080, USA.
  • 10 Department of Late Stage Pharmaceutical Development, Genentech Inc., San Francisco, CA 94080, USA.
  • 11 Department of Antibody Engineering, Genentech Inc., San Francisco, CA 94080, USA.
  • 12 Department of Pathology, Genentech Inc., San Francisco, CA 94080, USA.
  • 13 Department of Biochemical and Cellular Pharmacology, Genentech Inc., San Francisco, CA 94080, USA.
  • 14 Biostatistics, Genentech Inc., San Francisco, CA 94080, USA.
  • 15 Department of Biomarker Development, Genentech Inc., San Francisco, CA 94080, USA.
  • 16 Alliance for Multispecialty Research, University of Tennessee Medical Center, Knoxville, TN 37920, USA.
  • 17 Department of Preclinical and Translational Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics, Genentech Inc., San Francisco, CA 94080, USA.
  • 18 Department of Safety Assessment, Genentech Inc., San Francisco, CA 94080, USA. fuji.reina@gene.com.
Abstract

Tau has become an attractive alternative target for passive immunotherapy efforts for Alzheimer's disease (AD). The anatomical distribution and extent of tau pathology correlate with disease course and severity better than other Disease markers to date. We describe here the generation, preclinical characterization, and phase 1 clinical characterization of semorinemab, a humanized anti-tau monoclonal antibody with an immunoglobulin G4 (IgG4) isotype backbone. Semorinemab binds all six human tau isoforms and protects neurons against tau oligomer neurotoxicity in cocultures of neurons and microglia. In addition, when administered intraperitoneally once weekly for 13 weeks, murine versions of semorinemab reduced the accumulation of tau pathology in a transgenic mouse model of tauopathy, independent of antibody effector function status. Semorinemab also showed clear evidence of target engagement in vivo, with increases in systemic tau concentrations observed in tau transgenic mice, nonhuman primates, and humans. Higher concentrations of systemic tau were observed after dosing in AD participants compared to healthy control participants. No concerning safety signals were observed in the phase 1 clinical trial at single doses up to 16,800 mg and multiple doses totaling 33,600 mg in a month.

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