Objective
To determine the therapeutic efficacy and immunomodulatory effect of an anti-human death receptor 5 (DR5) antibody, TRA-8, in eliminating macrophage subsets in a collagen II-induced arthritis (CIA) mouse model.
Methods
A chimeric human/mouse (hu/mo) DR5 transgenic (Tg) mouse, under the regulation of the mouse 3-kb promoter and a Floxed-STOP cassette, was generated and crossed with an ubiquitous Cre (Ubc.Cre) and a lysozyme M Cre (LysM.Cre) Tg mouse to achieve inducible- or macrophage-specific expression. CIA was induced in mice by chicken CII, which were then treated with the anti-human DR5 antibody, TRA-8. The clinical scores, histopathologic severity, macrophage apoptosis and depletion, and T cell subset development were evaluated.
Results
In hu/mo DR5 Tg Ubc.Cre mice with CIA, Tg DR5 was most highly expressed in CD11b+ macrophages with lower expression on CD4+ T cells. In the hu/mo DR5 Tg LysM.Cre mice, Tg DR5 was restrictively expressed in macrophages. Near infrared (NIFR) in vivo imaging of caspase activity and TUNEL staining demonstrated that TRA-8 rapidly induced apoptosis of macrophages in the inflammatory synovium. Depletion of pathogenic macrophages by TRA-8 leads to significantly reduced clinical scores of arthritis, decreased macrophage infiltration, synovial hyperplasia, osteoclast formation, joint destruction, cathepsin activity, inflammatory cytokine expression in joints, reduced Th17, and increased Treg cells in the draining lymph nodes (LN).
Conclusion
The anti-human DR5 antibody TRA-8 was efficacious in reducing the severity of arthritis by targeted depleting macrophages and immunomodulation. Our data provide pre-clinical evidence that TRA-8 is a potential novel biologic agent for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) therapy.