Designing receptor agonists with enhanced pharmacokinetics by grafting macrocyclic peptides into fragment crystallizable regions

Short half-lives in circulation and poor transport across the blood–brain barrier limit the utility of cytokines and growth factors acting as receptor agonists. Here we show that surrogate receptor agonists with longer half-lives in circulation and enhanced transport rates across the blood–brain barrier can be generated by genetically inserting macrocyclic peptide pharmacophores into the structural loops of the fragment crystallizable (Fc) region of a human immunoglobulin. We used such ‘lasso-grafting’ approach, which preserves the expression levels of the Fc region and its affinity for the neonatal Fc receptor, to generate Fc-based protein scaffolds with macrocyclic peptides binding to the receptor tyrosine protein kinase Met. The Met agonists dimerized Met, inducing biological responses that were similar to those induced by its natural ligand. Moreover, lasso-grafting of the Fc region of the mouse anti-transferrin-receptor antibody with Met-binding macrocyclic peptides enhanced the accumulation of the resulting Met agonists in brain parenchyma in mice. Lasso-grafting may allow for designer protein therapeutics with enhanced stability and pharmacokinetics. Genetically grafting macrocyclic peptides into the structural loops of fragment crystallizable regions can make them surrogate receptor agonists with longer half-lives in circulation and enhanced penetration of the blood–brain barrier.