IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,281,159
Granted Patent B2
US 12,281,159 · App. 17/329,859 · Granted Apr 22, 2025

TGFβ antibodies, methods and uses

Inventors: Gregory J. Carven (Maynard, MA); Thomas Schurpf (Cambridge, MA); Katherine Turner (Acton, MA)
Assignee: Scholar Rock, Inc.
C07K16/22A61K38/18A61K39/39A61K39/3955C07K16/28C12N9/00A61K2039/505C07K2317/32C07K2317/76C07K2317/92
View Patent ↗
Loading inventors, assignments & file history…
Monitor This Case
Get email alerts when status or documents change.
Order Certified Copies
Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.
Order via The Patent Place →
Pre-filled with this patent's details
Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,281,159
App. No.
17/329,859
Granted
Apr 22, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

ProTGFβ1-GARP complex-selective antibodies, polynucleotides capable of encoding the proTGFβ1-GARP complex-selective antibodies or antigen-binding fragments, cells expressing proTGFβ1-GARP complex-selective antibodies or antigen-binding fragments, as well as associated vectors and detectably labeled proTGFβ1-GARP complex-selective antibodies or antigen-binding fragments may be used to enhance an immune response in a subject, for example, against a cancer.

Claims (60)

1. An antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof, wherein the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof specifically binds to human proTGFβ1 in a complex with human glycoprotein A repetitions predominant (proTGFβ1-GARP complex), wherein the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof comprises:

a. a heavy chain complementarity determining region (CDR) 1 comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 4, a heavy chain CDR2 comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 5, and a heavy chain CDR3 comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6, and a light chain CDR1 comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 7, a light chain CDR2 comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 8, and a light chain CDR3 comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 9; or

b. a heavy chain CDR1 comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 10, a heavy chain CDR2 comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 11, and a heavy chain CDR3 comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 12, and a light chain CDR1 comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 13, a light chain CDR2 comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 14, and a light chain CDR3 comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 15.

2. The antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof of claim 1 , wherein the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof inhibits regulatory T cell (Treg) function in vitro.

3. The antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof of claim 1 , wherein the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof inhibits the activation of TGFβ1.

4. The antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof of claim 1 , wherein the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof binds to an epitope of human proTGFβ1 modified as a result of complex formation with human GARP.

5. The antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof of claim 1 , wherein the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof binds to a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 in the presence of a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1.

6. The antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof of claim 5 , wherein the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof specifically binds to human proTGFβ1 with a binding affinity of at least 880 pM as measured by biolayer interferometry assay.

7. The antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof of claim 5 , wherein the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof binds to human proTGFβ1 with a dissociation constant (Kd) of less than or equal to 1 nM for human proTGFβ1 in a complex with human glycoprotein A repetitions predominant (proTGFβ1-GARP complex) and wherein said proTGFβ1-GARP complex is in solution.

8. The antigen-binding fragment thereof of claim 1 , wherein the antigen-binding fragment is a Fab fragment, a Fab2 fragment, or a single chain antibody.

9. The antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof of claim 1 , wherein the antibody or antigen-binding fragment is recombinant.

10. The antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof of claim 1 , wherein the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof are of lgG1, lgG2, lgG3, or lgG4 isotype.

11. The antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof of claim 10 , wherein the antibody is an lgG4 isotype.

12. A polynucleotide encoding the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof of claim 1 .

13. A vector comprising the polynucleotide of claim 12 .

14. A host cell comprising the vector of claim 13 .

15. A process for the production of an antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof, comprising:

culturing the host cell of claim 14 under the conditions allowing the expression of the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof, and

recovering the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof from the culture.

16. A pharmaceutical composition comprising the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof of claim 1 and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.

17. A kit comprising the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof of claim 1 and packaging for the same.

18. The antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof of claim 1 , wherein the antibody or antigen-binding fragment specifically binds to human proTGFβ1 in a complex with human glycoprotein A repetitions predominant (proTGFβ1-GARP complex);

wherein said complex is in solution;

wherein the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof has no detectable binding according to a biolayer interferometry assay to any of the following:

a TGFβ1 growth factor domain,

a TGFβ2 growth factor domain,

a TGFβ3 growth factor domain,

a proTGFβ1 covalently associated with LTBP1,

a proTGFβ1 covalently associated with LTBP3,

a proTGFβ1 covalently associated with LRRC33, or

a proTGFβ1 that is not associated with human GARP; and

wherein the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof has an inhibitory concentration (IC50) of less than or equal to 10 nM for inhibition of TGFB1 growth factor release from a cell-associated proTGFβ1-GARP complex.

19. A method of treating a subject with an infectious disease or hyperproliferative disorder comprising administering to a subject in need thereof the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof of claim 1 .

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof is administered in combination with one or more additional therapies or therapeutic agents selected from:

(a) a chemotherapeutic agent,

(b) radiotherapy, and

(c) a T-cell checkpoint inhibitor selected from an anti-PD-1 antibody, an anti-PD-L1 antibody, or an anti-CTLA-4 antibody.

21. The method of claim 19 , wherein the hyperproliferative disorder is cancer.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the cancer is kidney cancer or renal cell carcinoma.

23. The method of claim 21 , wherein the treatment results in one or more of the following:

inhibition of further tumor growth,

induction of tumor regression,

increase of progression-free survival,

extension of overall survival, or

delay or prevention of the onset of metastasis.

24. An antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof, comprising:

a. a heavy chain comprising an amino acid sequence that is at least 90% identical to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 16 and a light chain comprising an amino acid sequence that is at least 90% identical to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 17,

wherein the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof comprises heavy chain CDRs 1-3 comprising the amino acid sequences of SEQ ID NOs: 4-6, respectively, and light chain CDRs 1-3 comprising the amino acid sequences of SEQ ID NOs: 7-9, respectively; or

b. a heavy chain comprising an amino acid sequence that is at least 90% identical to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 18 and a light chain comprising an amino acid sequence that is at least 90% identical to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 19,

wherein the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof comprises heavy chain CDRs 1-3 comprising the amino acid sequences of SEQ ID NOs: 10-12, respectively, and light chain CDRs 1-3 comprising the amino acid sequences of SEQ ID NOs: 13-15, respectively.

25. The antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof of claim 24 , wherein

a. the heavy chain comprises the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 16 and the light chain comprises the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 17; or

b. the heavy chain comprises the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 18 and the light chain comprises the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 19.

26. An antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof, comprising:

a. a heavy chain variable region comprising an amino acid sequence that is at least 90% identical to amino acids 1-118 of SEQ ID NO: 16 and a light chain variable region comprising an amino acid sequence that is at least 90% identity to amino acids 1-107 of SEQ ID NO: 17,

wherein the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof comprises heavy chain CDRs 1-3 comprising the amino acid sequences of SEQ ID NOs: 4, 5, and 6, respectively, and light chain CDRs 1-3 comprising the amino acid sequences of SEQ ID NOs: 7, 8, and 9, respectively;

b. a heavy chain variable region comprising an amino acid sequence that is at least 90% identical to amino acids 1-121 of SEQ ID NO: 18 and a light chain variable region comprising an amino acid sequence that is at least 90% identical to amino acids 1-110 of SEQ ID NO: 19,

wherein the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof comprises heavy chain CDRs 1-3 comprising the amino acid sequences of SEQ ID NOs: 10-12, respectively, and light chain CDRs 1-3 comprising the amino acid sequences of SEQ ID NOs: 13-15, respectively;

c. a heavy chain variable region comprising amino acids 1-118 of SEQ ID NO: 16 and a light chain variable region sequence comprising amino acids 1-107 of SEQ ID NO: 17; or

d. a heavy chain variable region comprising amino acids 1-121 of SEQ ID NO: 18 and a light chain variable region sequence comprising amino acids 1-110 of SEQ ID NO: 19.

Assignments (3)
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Mar 3, 2026
From: SCHOLAR ROCK, INC.
To: LSI FINANCING LLC, AS ADMINISTRATIVE AGENT
Reel/Frame 075015/0854 →
STATEMENT OF CHANGE OF ADDRESS OF ASSIGNEE Recorded Mar 17, 2025
From: SCHOLAR ROCK, INC.
To: SCHOLAR ROCK, INC.
Reel/Frame 070537/0081 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Mar 14, 2025
From: CARVEN, GREGORY J.; SCHURPF, THOMAS; TURNER, KATHERINE
To: SCHOLAR ROCK, INC.
Reel/Frame 070511/0270 →
Continuity (4)
Continuation 16317635
Provisional Application 62371355 · Aug 5, 2016
Provisional Application 62362393 · Jul 14, 2016
Related Publication 20210277100A1 · Sep 9, 2021
References Cited (68)
US 5728813A · Lyman et al. · 1998 [cited by applicant]
US 5747498A · Schnur et al. · 1998 [cited by applicant]
US 5969110A · Beckmann et al. · 1999 [cited by applicant]
US 5981245A · Fox et al. · 1999 [cited by applicant]
US 6057124A · Bartley et al. · 2000 [cited by applicant]
US 6232447B1 · Cerretti · 2001 [cited by applicant]
US 6413932B1 · Cerretti et al. · 2002 [cited by applicant]
US 6479635B1 · Anderson et al. · 2002 [cited by applicant]
US 6521424B2 · Cerretti et al. · 2003 [cited by applicant]
US 6596852B2 · Cerretti et al. · 2003 [cited by applicant]
US 6737056B1 · Presta · 2004 [cited by applicant]
US 6740511B1 · Van Raaij et al. · 2004 [cited by applicant]
US 7067475B2 · Cerretti et al. · 2006 [cited by applicant]
US 7074408B2 · Fanslow, III et al. · 2006 [cited by applicant]
US 20020039992A1 · Cerretti et al. · 2002 [cited by applicant]
US 20020042368A1 · Fanslow, III et al. · 2002 [cited by applicant]
US 20020103358A1 · Cerretti et al. · 2002 [cited by applicant]
US 20030059937A1 · Ruben · 2003 [cited by examiner]
US 20030162712A1 · Cerretti et al. · 2003 [cited by applicant]
US 20060246071A1 · Green et al. · 2006 [cited by applicant]
US 20080219979A1 · Tocker et al. · 2008 [cited by applicant]
US 20110189082A1 · Kirchner et al. · 2011 [cited by applicant]
WO WO9519970A1 · 1995 [cited by applicant]
WO WO9802434A1 · 1998 [cited by applicant]
WO WO9814451A1 · 1998 [cited by applicant]
WO WO03002713A2 · 2003 [cited by applicant]
WO WO03086289A2 · 2003 [cited by applicant]
WO WO2007014162A2 · 2007 [cited by applicant]
WO WO2014055648A1 · 2014 [cited by applicant]
WO WO2014182676A2 · 2014 [cited by applicant]
WO WO2015015003A1 · 2015 [cited by applicant]
WO WO2015171691A2 · 2015 [cited by applicant]
WO WO2017156500A1 · 2017 [cited by applicant]
GenBank Accession AFR33667.1, 2012, pp. 1-2. [cited by examiner]
Masuda, 2006, FEBS Journal, pp. 2184-2194. [cited by examiner]
UniProtKB Accession P011861.1, 2010, pp. 1-6. [cited by examiner]
Hall, 1992, J. Immunol. Vol. 149: 1605-1612. [cited by examiner]
Rabia et al. 2018, Biochem. Eng. J. Vol. 137: 365-374. [cited by examiner]
Chothia, et al., “Conformations of immunoglobulin hypervariable regions,” Nature, 342: 877-883 (1989). [cited by applicant]
Chothia, et al., “Canonical Structures for the Hypervariable Regions of Immunoglobulins,” Journal of Molecular Biology, 196: 901-917 (1987). [cited by applicant]
Martin J. Cline, “Perspectives for Gene Therapy: Inserting New Genetic Information into Mammalian Cells by Physical Techniques and Viral Vectors,” Pharmaceutical Therapies: 29: 69-092 (1985). [cited by applicant]
Colombo, et al., Regulatory T-cell inhibition versus depletion: the right choice in cancer immunotherapy, Nature, 7: 880-887 (2007). [cited by applicant]
Cuende, et al., “Monoclonal Antibodies Against GARP/TFG-β1 Complexes Inhibit the Immunosuppressive Activity of Human Regulatory T Cells in Vivo,” Science Translational Medicine, 7 (284): 1-13 (2015). [cited by applicant]
Derynck, et al., “Human transforming growth factor-β complementary DNA sequence and expression in normal and transformed cells,” Nature, 316: 701-705 (1985). [cited by applicant]
Ferrara, et al., “The Carbohydrate at FCγRIIIa Asn-162,” The Journal of Biological Chemistry, 281 (8): 5032-5036 (2006). [cited by applicant]
Ferrera, et al., “Modulation of Therapeutic Antibody Effector Functions by Glycosylation Engineering: Influence of Golgi Enzyme Localization Domain and Co-Expression of Heterologous β1, 4-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase… [cited by applicant]
Gadi, et al., “In vivo sensitization of ovarian tumors to chemotherapy by expression of [cited by applicant]
Holt, et al, “Domain antibodies: proteins for therapy,” TRENDS in Biotechnology, 21 (11): 484-490 (2003). [cited by applicant]
Konno, et al., “Fucose content of monoclonal antibodies can be controlled by culture medium osmolality for high antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity,” Cytotechnology, 64: 249-265 (2012). [cited by applicant]
Lienart, et al., “Structural basis of latent TGF-b1 presentation and activation by GARP on human regulatory T cells,” Science, 362 (6417): 952-956 (2018). [cited by applicant]
Lonning, et al., “Antibody Targeting of TGF-β in Cancer Patients,” Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, 12: 2176-2189 (2011). [cited by applicant]
Maccallum, et al., “Antibody-antigen Interaction: Contact Analysis and Binding Site Topography,” Journal of Molecular Biology, 262: 732-745 (1996). [cited by applicant]
Martin, et al., “Structural Families in Loops of Homologous Proteins: Automatic Classification, Modelling and Application to Antibodies,” Journal of Molecular Biology, 263: 800-815 (1996). [cited by applicant]
Mori, et al., “Engineering Chinese Hamster Ovary Cells to Maximize Effector Function of Produced Antibodies Using FUT8 siRNA,” Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 88 (7): 901-908 (2004). [cited by applicant]
Myers, et al., “Optimal alignments in linear space,” CABIOS, 4 (1): 11-17 (1988). [cited by applicant]
Needleman, et al., “A General Method Applicable to the Search for Similarities in the Amino Acid Sequence of Two Proteins,” Journal of Molecular Biology, 48: 443-453 (1970). [cited by applicant]
Okayama, et al., “A cDNA Cloning Vector That Permits Expression of cDNA Inserts in Mammalian Cells,” Molecular and Cellular Biology, 3 (2): 280-289 (1983). [cited by applicant]
Olivier, et al., “EB66 cell line, a duck embryonic stem cell-derived substrate for the industrial production of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies with enhanced ADCC activity,” mAbs, 2 (4): 405-415 (2010). [cited by applicant]
Rivets, et al., “Nanobodies as novel agents for cancer therapy,” Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy, 5 (1): 111-124 (2005). [cited by applicant]
Shields, et al., “Lack of Fucose on Human IgG1 N-Linked Oligosaccharide Improves Binding to Human FcγRIII and Antibody-dependent Cellular Toxicity,” The Journal of Biological Chemistry, 277 (30): 26733-26740 (2002). [cited by applicant]
Shinkawa, et al., “The Absence of Fucose but Not the Presence of Galactose or Bisecting N-Acetylglucosamine of Human IgG1 Complex-type Oligosaccharides Shows the Critical Role of Enhancing Antibody-dependent Cellular Cy… [cited by applicant]
Stockis, et al., “Comparison of stable human Treg and Th clones by transcriptional profiling,” European Journal of Immunology, 39: 869-882 (2009). [cited by applicant]
Sun, et al., “GARP: a surface molecule of regulatory T cells that is involved in the regulatory function and TGF-[beta] releasing,” Oncotarget, 7 (27): 42826-42836 (2016). [cited by applicant]
Tran, et al., “GARP (LRRC32) is Essential for the Surface Expression of Latent TGF-β on Platelets and Activated FOXP3+ Regulatory T Cells,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106: 3445-3450 (2009). [cited by applicant]
Ward, et al., “Binding activities of a repertoire of single immunoglobulin variable domains secreted from [cited by applicant]
Zhou, et al., “Development of a Simple and Rapid Method for Producing Non-Fucosylated Oligomannose Containing Antibodies With Increased Effector Function,” Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 99 (3): 652-665 (2008). [cited by applicant]
PCT International Search Report dated Oct. 20, 2017. [cited by applicant]
Supplementary European Search Report dated Apr. 3, 2020. [cited by applicant]