- Lee, Sung Chang;
- Ma, Jennifer SY;
- Kim, Min Soo;
- Laborda, Eduardo;
- Choi, Sei-Hyun;
- Hampton, Eric N;
- Yun, Hwayoung;
- Nunez, Vanessa;
- Muldong, Michelle T;
- Wu, Christina N;
- Ma, Wenxue;
- Kulidjian, Anna A;
- Kane, Christopher J;
- Klyushnichenko, Vadim;
- Woods, Ashley K;
- Joseph, Sean B;
- Petrassi, Mike;
- Wisler, John;
- Li, Jing;
- Jamieson, Christina AM;
- Schultz, Peter G;
- Kim, Chan Hyuk;
- Young, Travis S
Despite the development of next-generation antiandrogens, metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) remains incurable. Here, we describe a unique semisynthetic bispecific antibody that uses site-specific unnatural amino acid conjugation to combine the potency of a T cell-recruiting anti-CD3 antibody with the specificity of an imaging ligand (DUPA) for prostate-specific membrane antigen. This format enabled optimization of structure and function to produce a candidate (CCW702) with specific, potent in vitro cytotoxicity and improved stability compared with a bispecific single-chain variable fragment format. In vivo, CCW702 eliminated C4-2 xenografts with as few as three weekly subcutaneous doses and prevented growth of PCSD1 patient-derived xenograft tumors in mice. In cynomolgus monkeys, CCW702 was well tolerated up to 34.1 mg/kg per dose, with near-complete subcutaneous bioavailability and a PK profile supporting testing of a weekly dosing regimen in patients. CCW702 is being evaluated in a first in-human clinical trial for men with mCRPC who had progressed on prior therapies (NCT04077021).