Treatment response was defined as 50% reduction in depressive symptoms at any point during the 12-week trial. One-hundred-forty-eight gene transcripts were significantly associated (1.2-fold, adjusted p <= 0.01) with response to infliximab and were distinct from placebo responders. Transcripts predictive of infliximab response were associated with gluconeogenesis and cholesterol transport, and were enriched in a network regulated by hepatocyte nuclear factor (HNF)4-alpha, a transcription factor involved in gluconeogenesis and cholesterol and lipid homeostasis.

Of the 148 transcripts differentially expressed at baseline, 48% were significantly regulated over time find more in infliximab

responders, including genes related to gluconeogenesis and the HNF4-alpha network, indicating that these predictive genes were responsive to infliximab. Responders also demonstrated inhibition of genes related to apoptosis through TNF signaling at 6 h and 24 h after infusion. Transcripts down-regulated in responders 2 weeks after infliximab were related to innate immune signaling and nuclear factor-kappa B. Thus, baseline transcriptional signatures reflective of alterations in glucose and lipid metabolism predicted antidepressant PLX4032 inhibitor response to infliximab, and infliximab response involved regulation of metabolic genes and inhibition of genes related to innate immune activation. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.”
“Protein aggregation is of great concern to pharmaceutical formulations and has been implicated in several diseases. We engineered an anti-IL-13 monoclonal antibody CNTO607 for improved solubility. Three structure-based engineering approaches were employed in this study: (i) modifying the isoelectric point (pI), SYN-117 clinical trial (ii) decreasing the overall surface hydrophobicity and (iii) re-introducing an N-linked carbohydrate moiety within a complementarity-determining

region (CDR) sequence. A mutant was identified with a modified pI that had a 2-fold improvement in solubility while retaining the binding affinity to IL-13. Several mutants with decreased overall surface hydrophobicity also showed moderately improved solubility while maintaining a similar antigen affinity. Structural studies combined with mutagenesis data identified an aggregation ‘hot spot’ in heavy-chain CDR3 (H-CDR3) that contains three residues ((99)FHW(100a)). The same residues, however, were found to be essential for high affinity binding to IL-13. On the basis of the spatial proximity and germline sequence, we reintroduced the consensus N-glycosylation site in H-CDR2 which was found in the original antibody, anticipating that the carbohydrate moiety would shield the aggregation ‘hot spot’ in H-CDR3 while not interfering with antigen binding.