Aoyagi-Scharber, M. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2018

BMN 250, a fusion of lysosomal alpha-N-acetylglucosaminidase with IGF2, exhibits different patterns of cellular uptake into critical cell types of Sanfilippo syndrome B disease pathogenesis.

Sanfilippo syndrome type B (Sanfilippo B; Mucopolysaccharidosis type IIIB) occurs due to genetic deficiency of lysosomal alpha-N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAGLU) and subsequent lysosomal accumulation of heparan sulfate (HS), which coincides with devastating neurodegenerative disease. Because NAGLU expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells is not mannose-6-phosphorylated, we developed an insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2)-tagged NAGLU molecule (BMN 250; tralesinidase alfa) that binds avidly to the IGF2 / cation-independent mannose 6-phosphate receptor (CI-MPR) for glycosylation independent lysosomal targeting. BMN 250 is currently being developed as an investigational enzyme replacement therapy for Sanfilippo B. Here we distinguish two cellular uptake mechanisms by which BMN 250 is targeted to lysosomes. In normal rodent-derived neurons and astrocytes, the majority of BMN250 uptake over 24 hours reaches saturation, which can be competitively inhibited with IGF2, suggestive of CI-MPR-mediated uptake. Kuptake, defined as the concentration of enzyme at half-maximal uptake, is 5 nM and 3 nM in neurons and astrocytes, with a maximal uptake capacity (Vmax) corresponding to 764 nmol/hr/mg and 5380 nmol/hr/mg, respectively. Similar to neurons and astrocytes, BMN 250 uptake in Sanfilippo B patient fibroblasts is predominantly CI-MPR-mediated, resulting in augmentation of NAGLU activity with doses of enzyme that fall well below the Kuptake (5 nM), which are sufficient to prevent HS accumulation. In contrast, uptake of the untagged recombinant human NAGLU (rhNAGLU) enzyme in neurons, astrocytes and fibroblasts is negligible at the same doses tested. In microglia, receptor-independent uptake, defined as enzyme uptake resistant to competition with excess IGF2, results in appreciable lysosomal delivery of BMN 250 and rhNAGLU (Vmax=12,336 nmol/hr/mg and 5469 nmol/hr/mg, respectively). These results suggest that while receptor-independent mechanisms exist for lysosomal targeting of rhNAGLU in microglia, BMN 250, by its IGF2 tag moiety, confers increased CI-MPR-mediated lysosomal targeting to neurons and astrocytes, two additional critical cell types of Sanfilippo B disease pathogenesis.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2018

Utilizing ExAC to Assess the Hidden Contribution of Variants of Unknown Significance to Sanfilippo Type B Incidence

Given the large and expanding quantity of publicly available sequencing data, it should be possible to extract incidence information for monogenic diseases from allele frequencies, provided one knows which mutations are causal. We tested this idea on a rare, monogenic, lysosomal storage disorder, Sanfilippo Type B (Mucopolysaccharidosis type IIIB).\n\nSanfilippo Type B is caused by mutations in the gene encoding -N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAGLU). There were 189 NAGLU missense variants found in the ExAC dataset that comprises roughly 60,000 individual exomes. Only 24 of the 189 missense variants were known to be pathogenic; the remaining 165 variants were of unknown significance (VUS), and their potential contribution to disease is unknown.\n\nTo address this problem, we measured enzymatic activities of 164 NAGLU missense VUS in the ExAC dataset and developed a statistical framework for estimating disease incidence with associated confidence intervals. We found that 25% of VUS decreased the activity of NAGLU to levels consistent with Sanfilippo Type B pathogenic alleles. We found that a substantial fraction of Sanfilippo Type B incidence (67%) could be accounted for by novel mutations not previously identified in patients, illustrating the utility of combining functional activity data for VUS with population-wide allele frequency data in estimating disease incidence.

bioinformatics↗