PEGylation of biomolecules is a major approach to increase blood stream half-life, stability and solubility of biotherapeutics and to reduce their immunogenicity, aggregation potential and unspecific interactions with other proteins and tissues. Antibodies have generally long half-lives due to high molecular mass and stability toward proteases, however their size lowers to some extent their potential because of a reduced ability to penetrate tissues, especially those of tumor origin. Fab or otherwise engineered smaller fragments are an alternative but are less stable and are much less well retained in circulation. We have here investigated the effects of various PEGylations on the binding properties and in vivo half-life of Fab fragments derived from the enzymatic splitting of Trastuzumab. We find that PEGylation increases the half-life of the molecules but also strongly affects the ability to recognize the target antigen in a way that is dependent on the extent and position of the chemical modification. Data thus support the concept that polyethylene glycol (PEG) conjugation on Trastuzumab Fabs increases half-life but reduces their affinity and this is a fine balance, which must be carefully considered for the design of strategies based on the use of antibody fragments.

Transglutaminases catalyze transglutamination reactions on glutamines. Transglutaminases are largely exploited for modifying proteins in pharmaceutical, food, and other biotechnological applications. A library of synthetic peptides has been designed, prepared, and screened to identify new peptide substrates. The new substrates are then used in TGAse-mediated conjugation reactions to engraft synthons onto biomolecules. These peptide substrates confer the bioactive peptides and proteins with new properties. We have identified an optimized substrate named LQSP, which is recognized and processed by microbial TGAse with a strikingly higher efficiency compared to the well-known TQGA sequence. The new substrate has been used to selectively modify prototypical bioactive peptides and proteins with fluoresceine or recognition motifs. We show that, where a reactive lysine is available, proteins and peptides of relevant therapeutic interest, can be selectively and smoothly modified in order to incorporate new functions such as fluorescent labels, recognition units, or reactive groups.

Human glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a physiological gastrointestinal peptide with glucose-dependent insulinotropic effects which is therefore considered an interesting antidiabetic agent. However, after in vivo administration, exogenous GLP-1 does not exert its physiological action due to the combination of rapid proteolytic degradation by ubiquitous dipeptidyldipeptidase IV (DPP IV) enzyme and renal clearance resulting in an extremely short circulating half-life. In this work we describe the conjugation of GLP-1-(7-36)-amide derivatives with polyethylene glycol (PEG) by enzymatic site-specific transglutamination reaction as an approach to reduce both the proteolysis and the renal clearance rates.The compound GLP-1-(7-36)-amide-Q23-PEG 20 kDa monopegylated on the single glutamine residue naturally present in position 23 maintained the ability to activate the GLP-1 receptor expressed in the rat β-cell line RIN-m5F with nanomolar potency along with an increased in vitro resistance to DDP IV and a circulating half-life of about 12 h after subcutaneous administration in rats. These properties enabled GLP-(7-36)-amide-Q23-PEG 20 kDa to exert a glucose-stabilizing effect for a period as long as 8 h, as demonstrated by a single subcutaneous injection to diabetic mice concomitantly challenged with an oral glucose load.The results reported in this work indicate that GLP-(7-36)-amide-Q23-PEG 20 kDa could be a lead compound for the development of long-lasting anti-diabetic agents useful in the treatment of type 2 diabetes affected patients.

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