Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39981925›Full record

ArticleProtein science : a publication of the Protein Society2025

Taming interleukin-12: Engineering of bispecific antibody-based IL-12 mimetics with biased agonism capacities.

Britta Lipinski, Laura Unmuth, Paul Arras, Ron Endruszeit, Stefan Becker, Jonathan Mathias Rödel, Jürgen Scheller, Silke Pudewell, Doreen M Floss, Simon Krah and 10 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
11citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

11 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

20 authors.

Britta LipinskiBiomolecular Immunotherapy, Institute for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany.
Laura UnmuthBiomolecular Immunotherapy, Institute for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany.
Paul ArrasBiomolecular Immunotherapy, Institute for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany.
Ron EndruszeitBiomolecular Immunotherapy, Institute for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany.
Stefan BeckerAntibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, Merck Healthcare KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.
Jonathan Mathias RödelInstitute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II, Medical Faculty and University Hospital Düsseldorf, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Jürgen SchellerInstitute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II, Medical Faculty and University Hospital Düsseldorf, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Silke PudewellInstitute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II, Medical Faculty and University Hospital Düsseldorf, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Doreen M FlossInstitute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II, Medical Faculty and University Hospital Düsseldorf, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Simon KrahAntibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, Merck Healthcare KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.
Julia HarwardtAntibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, Merck Healthcare KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.
Achim DoernerAntibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, Merck Healthcare KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.
Laura HelmingResearch Unit Oncology, EMD Serono Research Center, Billerica, Massachusetts, USA.
Chunxiao XuResearch Unit Oncology, EMD Serono Research Center, Billerica, Massachusetts, USA.
Andreas MenradAntibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, Merck Healthcare KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.
Andreas EversAntibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, Merck Healthcare KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-4643-1941
Harald KolmarApplied Biochemistry, Institute for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany.
Desislava ElterAntibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, Merck Healthcare KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.
Lukas PekarAntibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, Merck Healthcare KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.
Stefan ZielonkaBiomolecular Immunotherapy, Institute for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In this work, we have generated bispecific interleukin (IL)-12 surrogate agonists based on camelid-derived single-domain antibodies (sdAbs) targeting the IL-12 receptor (IL-12R) subunits IL-12Rβ1 and IL-12Rβ2. Following immunization and antibody display-based paratope isolation, respective sdAbs were combinatorially reformatted into a monovalent bispecific architecture by grafting resulting paratopes onto the hinge region of a heterodimeric Fc region. Functional characterization using NK-92 cells enabled the identification of multiple different sdAb-based bispecifics displaying divergent IL-12R agonism capacities as analyzed by STAT4 phosphorylation. Further investigations by harnessing peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy donors revealed attenuated pSTAT4 activation compared to recombinant human (rh) wild-type IL-12 regarding both natural killer (NK)-cell and T-cell activation but robust IL-12R agonism on stimulated T cells. While several sdAb-based IL-12 mimetics were nearly inactive on NK cells as well as T cells obtained from PBMCs, they elicited significant STAT4 phosphorylation and interferon (IFN)-γ release on stimulated T cells as well as an IL-12-like transcriptional signature. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the activity of receptor agonism of generated bispecific IL-12 mimetics can also be biased towards stimulated T cells by changing the spatial orientation of the individual sdAbs within the molecular design architecture. Taken together, we present an alternative strategy to generate IL-12-like biologics with tailor-made characteristics.

Indexed as

Antibodies, BispecificInterleukin-12Protein EngineeringReceptors, Interleukin-12AnimalsHumansKiller Cells, NaturalLeukocytes, MononuclearLymphocyte ActivationPhosphorylationSTAT4 Transcription FactorT-LymphocytesAntibodies, BispecificInterleukin-12Receptors, Interleukin-12STAT4 protein, humanSTAT4 Transcription Factorantibody engineeringbispecific antibodycytokine mimeticIL‐12NK cellsingle‐domain antibodysurrogate cytokineT cellVHHyeast surface display

Identifiers

PMID39981925
PMCPMC11843475

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.