Impact of anti-drug antibodies in preclinical pharmacokinetic assessment

The administration of human biotherapeutics is often associated with a higher incidence of immunogenicity in preclinical species. The presence of anti-drug antibodies (ADAs) in the test samples can affect the accurate measurement of therapeutic protein (TP) in bioanalytical methods designed to support pharmacokinetic (PK) and toxicokinetic (TK) assessments. The impact can vary depending on the bioanalytical method platform and study dosing design. The goal of this study is to evaluate the impact of ADA response on the bioanalytical methods in support of PK/TK and the associated study data interpretation. Sprague Dawley rats were administered with four weekly doses of 50 mg/kg TP, a humanized monoclonal antibody. The TP in serum samples was measured using three bioanalytical methods that quantified bound and/or unbound TP to ADA. The ADA response in the animals was classified into negative, low, medium, and high based on the magnitude of the response. The presence of ADA in samples led to discrepant TP measurements between the methods, especially at time points where the TP concentrations were low. This could be due to ADA interference to the accurate measurement of ADA-bound TP concentrations. The TP concentration at last time point (C last) was reduced by 82.8%, 98.6%, and 99.8%, respectively, for samples containing low, medium, and high levels of ADA. The interfering effects of the ADA on bioanalytical methods and exposure were evident as early as 2 weeks post-dosing. This modeling approach can provide the better understanding of ADA impact on PK exposure in multiple doses.