Antibody pills for gastrointestinal disorders
In a multidisciplinary effort between experts in biomedical biotechnology (including prof. Nico Callewaert), plant biotechnology, structural biology and veterinary medicine, ‘edible’ antibodies were developed to treat and prevent gastrointestinal disorders.
Therapeutic antibodies are widely used in medicine for treatment or prevention of a multitude of diseases, including infectious diseases, cancer and inflammation. Typically, they are injected in the bloodstream, thereby causing systemic side effects. Local delivery could avoid or minimize those side effects, as such oral ingestion would be ideal for gastrointestinal disorders. However, till now, this was not feasible, as the digestive environment of the gastrointestinal tract can break down the antibodies. That’s why the different VIB and UGent labs teamed up to develop technologies that protect antibodies during gastric passage to deliver them intact to the target site in the gut.
Vikram Virdi, postdoc in the lab of prof. Nico Callewaert (VIB-UGent) and prof. Ann Depicker (VIB-UGent) and coworkers, now published a technology that makes oral to gut delivery of antibodies possible. The scientists engineered an antibody format that is simple but robust enough to survive the harsh environment in the gut. What is more, the team also developed a manufacturing process that uses either soybean seeds or yeast cells to produce these antibodies, as such eliminating the need for expensive purification processes. The result is an easily manufactured powder with antibodies that can be added to food and ingested orally, requiring no encapsulation.
The technology is published in Nature Biotechnology, along with a proof-of-concept in pigs. As the human and pig gut is strikingly similar, the researchers are exploring the applicability of these new ‘edible’ antibodies for human gastric and gut diseases, including Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and cancer.
More info on the VIB website.
The Nature Biotechnology article can be found here.