PART 1: Integrin αvβ8
Advances in our understanding of the regulation and function of TGF-β is driving novel drug development for the treatment of diverse diseases. This is a field I’ve followed for a long time and of course in the development of cell therapeutics we (www.aletabio.com) always have an eye on immunosuppressive pathways – indeed, the immunotherapy and cell therapy fields cross-fertilize often and productively (see http://www.sugarconebiotech.com/?m=202002).
Several new papers in this space have caught my eye and I’m keen to share some key findings. This will be a multi-part post and today I want to talk about an integrin.
Long time readers will appreciate the importance of alpha v-integrin-mediated regulation of TGF-β release from the latent complex (http://www.sugarconebiotech.com/?p=1073). The model that first emerged around 2010 was elegant: various signaling pathways triggered GPCRs that could activate an integrin beta strand (paired with an alpha v integrin) and coordinate the release of TGF-β from the cell surface. Soluble TGF-β, free from restraint, could diffuse across nearby cells and trigger TGF-β-receptor activation. Three integrins have been linked to the regulation of TGF-β release: αvβ6, αvβ8 and αvβ3. The mechanism for releasing TGF-β from the latent complex on the cell surface requires a conformation change in the integrin structure. From this insight emerged diverse drug development efforts targeting specific integrins, targeting the ligands for specific GPCRs and so on. Notable examples include the anti-αvβ6 antibody STX-100 (Biogen), the autotaxin inhibitor GLPG1690 (Galapagos), small molecule inhibitors designed to block integrin conformational change, and isoform-specific anti-TGF-β biologics, among many others. The mechanism of action of these drugs includes reduction of free, active TGF-β and therefore reduced TGF-β-receptor signaling. STX-100 was withdrawn from clinical development due to toxicity – more on this another time. GLPG1690 is now in a Phase III trial (in IPF) having shown anti-fibrotic activity in earlier clinical trials – this drug has had an interesting life, originally partnered by Galapagos with Johnson & Johnson, later returned, and now part of the mega-partnership with Gilead. I’ve previously discussed these and many other drugs in development in the context of fibrosis pathogenesis (http://www.sugarconebiotech.com/?p=1073). We’ll look at novel TGF-β-directed antagonists and their role in immune-oncology in part 2, as part of a long-running thread (http://www.sugarconebiotech.com/?m=201811).
So back to integrins. The dogma that emerged based on work from disparate labs was that an activated integrin was required to release TGF-β from the latent (inactive) complex on cell surfaces, allowing for precise regulation of TGF-β activity. More specifically, this model refers to the release of two of the three isoforms of TGF-β – isoforms 1 and 3. Isoform 2 regulation is different and relies on physical force acting directly on cells to trigger release. Of note, isoform 2 antagonism contributes to the toxicity associated with pan-TGF-β blockade but does not appear to contribute significantly to disease pathology either in fibrosis or in oncology. Therefore, specifically antagonizing TGF-β-1/3 without antagonizing TGF-β-2 is ideal – and the model we’ve just outlined allows for this specificity by targeting specific integrins.
The model that alpha v integrins mediated release of free, active TGF-β has held firm for nearly a decade. Now however there is a fascinating update to this model that involves the αvβ8 integrin. Work from the labs of Yifan Cheng and Steve Nishimura at UCSF has revealed a novel mechanism of TGF-β regulation that has interesting implications for drug development (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.12.030). Uniquely, integrin αvβ8 lacks critical intracellular binding domains that allow an integrin to anchor to actin fibers within the cell. As a result, binding to αvβ8 does not cause the release of TGF-β from the latent complex on the cell surface but rather presents an active form of TGF-β on that cell surface, without release from the latent complex. Importantly the complex formed between αvβ8 and TGF-β is conformationally stable and relies (in their experimental system) on trans-interaction between one cell expressing αvβ8 and a second cell expressing TGF-β as displayed on a latent protein complex (here, containing the GARP protein), and expressing the TGF-β receptors. In this system TGF-β remains anchored to the GARP-complex, but the conformational rotation caused by αvβ8 binding allows anchored TGF-βto interact with TGF-β-RII, thereby recruiting TGF-β-RI and inducing signaling.
The focus on GARP (aka LRRC32) relates to this groups long-standing interest with T-regulatory cells, which uniquely express GARP. Biotech investors will recall the Abbvie/Argenx deal on this target, which is in clinical development (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03821935). A related protein called LRRC33 has been discovered on myeloid lineage cells.
More important, in my view, is that αvβ8 is expressed widely on tumor cells and has been variably reported to correlate with metastases (depending on the indication). This suggests that one means that tumor cells have of inducing TGF-β activation on interacting cells (eg. lymphocytes, myeloid cells and perhaps stromal cells) is via αvβ8 activity. The dependent hypothesis would be that such activation is immunosuppressive for those tumor-interacting cells. This is consistent with the known effects of TGF-β on immune cells in particular, but also stromal cells like fibroblasts. As an aside I like this model as one way of accounting for the appearance of T-regulatory cells and myeloid lineage suppressor cells in the tumor microenvironment as result of, rather than the cause of, immunosuppression, that is, these cells may be epi-phenomena of broad TGF-β-mediated immunosuppression. This may in turn explain why targeting such cells as T-regs and MDSCs has been largely unsuccessful to date as a therapeutic strategy for cancer.
There are some other implications. As the authors point put, the integrin/TGF-β complex is stable, and the binding domain that mediates the interaction is buried with the protein complex. It is unclear whether anti-TGF-β antagonists that target the canonical integrin binding cleft would be able to access this site within the complex. It’s possible that some of these drugs (whether antibodies or small molecules) can’t work in this setting. On the other hand, antibodies to αvβ8 clearly prevent the complex from forming and should block TGF-β-mediated immunosuppressive signaling in settings where αvβ8 expression is dominant. An anti-αvβ8 antibody strategy is being pursued by Venn Therapeutics (disclosure: I sit on Venn’s SAB). Further, the structural features identified in the paper include well-defined pockets that might be suitable for small molecule drugs. Indeed, one of the structural features in the b8 protein, consisting of hydrophobic residues, appears to account for the differential binding of various integrins (β6, β1, β2, β4, β7) to TGF-β, a remarkable finding. Analyses of the differences between the structure of β8 and other β integrins has been extensive across laboratories (see https://www.nature.c
Next: what has Scholar Rock been up to, and what can we learn from their work?
Stay tuned.