Targeting Pathogenic Lafora Bodies in Lafora Disease Using an Antibody-Enzyme Fusion Notes/Citation Information To be published in Cell Metabolism.

Mitochondria are bilayer sub-cellular organelles that are an integral part of normal cellular physiology. They are responsible for producing the majority of a cell’s ATP, thus supplying energy for a variety of key cellular processes, especially in the brain. Although energy production is a key aspect of mitochondrial metabolism, its role extends far beyond energy production to cell signaling and epigenetic regulation–functions that contribute to cellular proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, migration, and autophagy. Recent research on neurological disorders suggest a major metabolic component in disease pathophysiology, and mitochondria have been shown to be in the center of metabolic dysregulation and possibly disease manifestation. This review will discuss the basic functions of mitochondria and how alterations in mitochondrial activity lead to neurological disease progression.

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Lafora disease (LD) is a fatal juvenile epilepsy, characterized by the accumulation of aberrant glucan aggregates called Lafora Bodies (LBs). Delivery of protein-based therapeutics to the central nervous system (CNS) for the clearance of LBs remains a unique challenge in the field. Recently, a humanized antigen-binding fragment (hFab) derived from a murine systemic lupus erythematosus DNA autoantibody (3E10) has been shown to mediate cell penetration and has been proposed as a broadly applicable carrier to mediate cellular targeting and uptake. We report studies on the efficacy and CNS delivery of VAL-0417, an antibody-enzyme fusion composed of the 3E10 hFab and human pancreatic α-amylase, in a mouse model of LD. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has been developed to detect VAL-0417 post treatment as a measure of delivery efficacy. We demonstrate the robust and sensitive detection of the fusion protein in multiple tissue types. Using this method, we measured biodistribution in different methods of delivery. We found intracerebroventricular administration (ICV) provided robust CNS delivery when compared to intrathecal administration (IT). These data define critical steps in the translational pipeline of VAL-0417 for the treatment of LD.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men worldwide. Despite its prevalence, there is a critical knowledge gap in understanding factors driving disparities in survival among different cohorts of patients with prostate cancer. Identifying molecular features separating disparate populations is an important first step in prostate cancer research that could lead to fundamental hypotheses in prostate biology, predictive biomarker discovery, and personalized therapy. N-linked glycosylation is a cotranslational event during protein folding that modulates a myriad of cellular processes. Recently, aberrant N-linked glycosylation has been reported in prostate cancers. However, the full clinical implications of dysregulated glycosylation in prostate cancer has yet to be explored. Herein, we performed direct on-tissue analysis of N-linked glycans using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI) from tissue microarrays of over 100 patient tumors with over 10 years of follow-up metadata. We successfully identified a panel of N-glycans that are unique between benign and prostate tumor tissue. Specifically, high-mannose as well as tri-and tetra-antennary N-glycans were more abundant in tumor tissue and increase proportionally with tumor grade. Further, we expanded our analyses to examine the N-glycan profiles of Black and Appalachian patients and have identified unique glycan signatures that correlate with recurrence in each population. Our study highlights the potential applications of MALDI-MSI for digital pathology and biomarker discovery for prostate cancer. Implications: MALDI-MSI identifies N-glycan perturbations in prostate tumors compared with benign tissue. This method can be utilized to predict prostate cancer recurrence and study prostate cancer disparities.