Lens Epithelium Derived Growth Factor (1-326): A
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LENS EPITHELIUM DERIVED GROWTH FACTOR (1-326): A NEW PROTEIN DRUG FOR RETINAL DISEASES By RINKU BAID B.Pharm. (Honors), Jadavpur University, 1997 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Pharmaceutical Sciences 2013 This thesis for the Doctor of Philosophy degree by Rinku Baid has been approved for the Pharmaceutical Sciences Program by Latoya Jones Braun, Chair Uday B. Kompella, Advisor J Mark Petrash Dhinakar Kompala Krishna Mallela Date: 08/14/2013 ii Baid, Rinku (Ph.D., Pharmaceutical Sciences) Lens Epithelium Derived Growth Factor (1-326): A New Protein Drug for Retinal Diseases Thesis directed by Professor Uday B. Kompella ABSTRACT Although over 2.2 million people in the United States suffer from dry age related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa, there are no FDA approved therapeutic agents. Lens epithelium derived growth factor (LEDGF), a transcription factor that promotes cell survival, although effective in reducing retinal degeneration, has a binding domain for the HIV integrase. To overcome this limitation, which promotes HIV infection, the purpose of this study was to design a fragment of LEDGF as a novel therapy for treating retinal degenerative diseases. Further, we hypothesized that the novel fragment of LEDGF is useful in treating protein aggregation disorders such as retinitis pigmentosa and that nanoassemblies of this protein can offer enhanced stability, delivery, and activity, while prolonging drug delivery. We designed and synthesized LEDGF1-326 as a new protein to avoid HIV integrase interactions of LEDGF, assessed its ability to reduce P23H rhodopsin protein aggregation induced stress, prepared stable formulations including nanoassemblies and assessed their cellular entry and in vivo delivery and efficacy. Additionally, LEDGF1-326 nanoparticles in porous microparticles (NPinPMP) were engineered and characterized for morphology, drug release, and in vivo delivery. iii LEDGF1-326 expression decreased P23H rhodopsin aggregates and aggregation mediated retinal cell damage. LEDGF1-326 was produced at about 20 mg/L of culture and purified with ~ 95 % monomer content. A single intravitreal injection of LEDGF1-326 protein in RCS rats significantly reduced the functional and morphological loss of photoreceptors for at least eight weeks. A liquid formulation of LEDGF1-326 with stabilizing excipients improved protein stability and maintained protein activity in an ELISA assay for 60 days at 25 °C. LEDGF1-326 nanoassemblies (~ 28 nm) increased cell uptake of LEDGF1-326 to 2.5-fold and in vivo mean residence time in Sprague Dawley rat choroid-retina by 21-fold from 0.27 to 5.7 days. Nanoassemblies prolonged LEDGF1-326 efficacy and reduced retinal degeneration in RCS rats. NPinPMP sustained in vitro LEDGF1-326 release for 3 months and in vivo delivery for at least 2 months. LEDGF1-326 is a new protein drug for treating retinal degenerative diseases. Nanoassemblies and NPinPMP are novel delivery systems for enhanced and sustained LEDGF1-326 delivery to the back of the eye. The form and content of this abstract are approved. I recommend its publication. Approved: Uday B. Kompella iv I dedicate this work to my son Vikramaditya for his naive and innocent love, sacrifice, support, and encouragement. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Prof. Uday B. Kompella for providing me the opportunity and boundless support to perform my PhD study and research. I am deeply grateful to him for his patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and confidence towards me throughout my PhD. Because of his valuable scientific insights and meticulous comments, I was able to scientifically advance and accomplish a major milestone in my career. Under his guidance, I not only gained immense scientific knowledge but also horned my professional skills including communication, leadership, and decision-making. I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my Ph.D study. Without his encouragement, this dissertation would not have materialized. Besides my advisor, I am deeply grateful to each of my dissertation committee members: Dr. Latoya Jones Braun (Chair), Dr. J Mark Petrash, Dr. Dhinakar Kompala, and Dr. Krishna Mallela for their encouragement, valuable recommendations, astute comments, and hard questions. I feel privileged to have them as my scientific guides. I would like to offer my special thanks and gratitude to Dr. N Karl Maluf who was my committee Chair during the initial years, for his constructive comments and warm encouragement. I would like to offer special thanks to Dr. Robert Scheinman for his mentorship and deep rooted scientific discussions, which helped me in grasping and become proficient in the complex field of molecular biology. He continually and convincingly conveyed an immense spirit of adventure in research and scholarship and excitement in teaching. vi I am in debt to Dr. Toshimichi Shinohara and Dr. Dhirendra Pratap Singh, University of Nebraska Medical Center for their guidance and for their help in providing lens epithelium derived growth factor (LEDGF) plasmid. My special thanks to Dr. Ron Kopito, Standford University for providing P23H rhodopsin plasmid. I would like to thank Dr. Raul Velez-Montoya and Dr. Jeffrey L Olson for their guidance in performing electroretinography experiments. I would also like to thank Dr. Joseph Brzezinski for his guidance in immunofluorescence studies and Dr. David Siegel for assisting me with confocal microscopy and western blot analyses. I also like to thank my collaborators from within the University of Colorado and other institutes: Dr. David Ross, Dr. Jeffrey L Olson, Dr. Eva N Grayck, Dr. Sangley P. Srinivas, Dr. Neena Haider, Dr. Radha Ayyagari, Dr. Venkataraman Mahalingam, Dr. Mark R. Prausnitz, Dr. Henry F. Edelhauser, Dr. Ram Kannan, Dr. Kirill Ostanin, and Dr. Shalesh Kaushal for giving me an opportunity to expand my research expertise beyond the dissertation project. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all those who provided me the possibility to complete this dissertation. I would also like to express my gratitude to University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Nebraska Medical Center, and National Institute of Health for the financial support and core facilities. I thank all my past and present members of my laboratory in University of Colorado Denver: Arun K Upadhyay, Jiban Jyoti Panda, Sarath Yandrapu, Ruchit Trivedi, Sunil Vooturi, Shelly Durazo, Rashmi Pacha Ravi, Namdev Shelke, Gajanan Yadav, Vidhya Rao, Jiban Anand Mishra, Ashish Thakur, Sneha Sundaram, Swita Singh, vii and Puneet Tyagi for the stimulating discussions, and for all the fun we have had during my PhD. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the past members of my laboratory Dr. Surya Ayalasomayajula, Dr. Nagesh Bandi, Dr. Aniruddha Amrite, and Dr. Jithan Aukunuru for their valuable recommendation, support, and guidance in my quest for future career opportunities. I would like to offer my special thanks to my friends: Dr. Sundeep Sethia, Dr. Tushar Mukherjee, Dr. Saumitra Bagchi, and Abhijit Malvi, who have been my source of constant support and encouragement during my difficult times. Last but not the least; I would like to thank my family: my parents Padam Agarwal and Renu Agarwal for their faith and confidence in me, my sister Seema Mittal and my brothers Kamalesh Agarwal and Rakesh Agarwal for their love and encouragement. My deepest appreciation goes to Rahul Baid who has always been my friend and source of encouragement. I owe a very important debt to my son Vikramaditya Baid for his sacrifice and letting me be away from him to pursue my research career. I owe my deepest gratitude to him for his innocent love, support, and smiles. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. STATEMENT OF PROBLEM ................................................................................. 1 Specific Aims ....................................................................................................... 9 Specific Aim 1 ............................................................................................ 9 Hypothesis................................................................................................... 9 Specific Aim 2 .......................................................................................... 10 Hypothesis................................................................................................. 10 Specific Aim 3 .......................................................................................... 10 Hypothesis................................................................................................. 10 Specific Aim 4 .......................................................................................... 11 Hypothesis................................................................................................. 11 Specific Aim 5 .......................................................................................... 11 Hypothesis................................................................................................. 11 Summary ............................................................................................................ 12 II. INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................