A Novel Class of Anti-HIV Agents with Multiple Copies of Enfuvirtide Enhances Inhibition of Viral Replication and Cellular Transmission In Vitro

We constructed novel HIV-1 fusion inhibitors that may overcome the current limitations of enfuvirtide, the first such therapeutic in this class. The three prototypes generated by the Dock-and-Lock (DNL) technology to comprise four copies of enfuvirtide tethered site-specifically to the Fc end of different humanized monoclonal antibodies potently neutralize primary isolates (both R5-tropic and X4-tropic), as well as T-cell-adapted strains of HIV-1 in vitro. All three prototypes show EC(50) values in the subnanomolar range, which are 10- to 100-fold lower than enfuvirtide and attainable whether or not the constitutive antibody targets HIV-1. The potential of such conjugates to purge latently infected cells was also demonstrated in a cell-to-cell viral inhibition assay by measuring their efficacy to inhibit the spread of HIV-1(LAI) from infected human peripheral blood mononuclear cells to Jurkat T cells over a period of 30 days following viral activation with 100 nM SAHA (suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid). The IgG-like half-life was not significantly different from that of the parental antibody, as shown by the mean serum concentration of one prototype in mice at 72 h. These encouraging results provide a rationale to develop further novel anti-HIV agents by coupling additional antibodies of interest with alternative HIV-inhibitors via recombinantly-produced, self-assembling, modules.