Title:Factors Influencing ADME Properties of Therapeutic Antisense Oligonucleotides:
Physicochemical Characteristics and Beyond
Volume: 24
Issue: 7
Author(s): Rongrong Jiang*, Shirin Hooshfar, Marsha Rebecca Eno, Cassandra Yun, Estevan Sonego Zimmermann and Raku Shinkyo*
Affiliation:
- Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics, Eisai Inc., Massachusetts, USA
- Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics, Eisai Inc., Massachusetts, USA
Keywords:
ASO, ADME, pharmacokinetics, cell uptake, protein binding, species difference, drug-drug interaction, bioanalysis, antisense oligonucleotide.
Abstract: Therapeutic antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) represent a diverse array of chemically modified singlestranded
deoxyribonucleotides that work complementarily to affect their mRNA targets. They vastly differ from
conventional small molecules. These newly developed therapeutic ASOs possess unique absorption, distribution,
metabolism, and excretion (ADME) processes that ultimately determine their pharmacokinetic, efficacy and safety
profiles. The ADME properties of ASOs and associated key factors have not been fully investigated. Therefore,
thorough characterization and in-depth study of their ADME properties are critical to support drug discovery and
development processes for safe and effective therapeutic ASOs. In this review, we discussed the main factors affecting
the ADME characteristics of these novels and evolving therapies. The major changes to ASO backbone and sugar
chemistry, conjugation approaches, sites and routes of administration, etc., are the principal determinants of ADME
and PK profiles that consequentially impact their efficacy and safety profiles. In addition, species difference and DDI
considerations are important in understanding ADME profile and PK translatability but are less studied for ASOs.
We, therefore, have summarized these aspects based on current knowledge and provided discussions in this review.
We also give an overview of the current tools, technologies, and approaches available to investigate key factors that
influence the ADME of ASO drugs and provide future perspectives and knowledge gap analysis.