1. Academic Validation
  2. A novel thiol-saccharide mucolytic for the treatment of muco-obstructive lung diseases

A novel thiol-saccharide mucolytic for the treatment of muco-obstructive lung diseases

  • Eur Respir J. 2023 May 25;61(5):2202022. doi: 10.1183/13993003.02022-2022.
Annalisa Addante 1 2 Wilfred Raymond 3 Irina Gitlin 3 Annabelle Charbit 3 Xavier Orain 3 Aaron Wolfe Scheffler 4 Aditi Kuppe 1 2 Julia Duerr 1 2 Maria Daniltchenko 1 Marika Drescher 1 Simon Y Graeber 1 2 5 Anne-Marie Healy 6 Stefan Oscarson 7 John V Fahy 3 8 9 Marcus A Mall 10 2 5 9
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Pediatric Respiratory Medicine, Immunology and Critical Care Medicine, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
  • 2 German Centre for Lung Research (DZL), associated partner, Berlin, Germany.
  • 3 Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
  • 4 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
  • 5 Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
  • 6 School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
  • 7 Centre for Synthesis and Chemical Biology, University College Dublin, Belfield, Ireland.
  • 8 Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
  • 9 J.V. Fahy and M.A. Mall contributed equally as senior authors.
  • 10 Department of Pediatric Respiratory Medicine, Immunology and Critical Care Medicine, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany marcus.mall@charite.de.
Abstract

Background: Mucin disulfide cross-links mediate pathologic mucus formation in muco-obstructive lung diseases. MUC-031, a novel thiol-modified carbohydrate compound, cleaves disulfides to cause mucolysis. The aim of this study was to determine the mucolytic and therapeutic effects of MUC-031 in sputum from patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) and mice with muco-obstructive lung disease (βENaC-Tg mice).

Methods: We compared the mucolytic efficacy of MUC-031 and existing mucolytics (N-acetylcysteine (NAC) and recombinant human deoxyribonuclease I (rhDNase)) using rheology to measure the elastic modulus (G') of CF sputum, and we tested effects of MUC-031 on airway mucus plugging, inflammation and survival in βENaC-Tg mice to determine its mucolytic efficacy in vivo.

Results: In CF sputum, compared to the effects of rhDNase and NAC, MUC-031 caused a larger decrease in sputum G', was faster in decreasing sputum G' by 50% and caused mucolysis of a larger proportion of sputum samples within 15 min of drug addition. Compared to vehicle control, three treatments with MUC-031 in 1 day in adult βENaC-Tg mice decreased airway mucus content (16.8±3.2 versus 7.5±1.2 nL·mm-2, p<0.01) and bronchoalveolar lavage cells (73 833±6930 versus 47 679±7736 cells·mL-1, p<0.05). Twice-daily treatment with MUC-031 for 2 weeks also caused decreases in these outcomes in adult and neonatal βENaC-Tg mice and reduced mortality from 37% in vehicle-treated βENaC-Tg neonates to 21% in those treated with MUC-031 (p<0.05).

Conclusion: MUC-031 is a potent and fast-acting mucolytic that decreases airway mucus plugging, lessens airway inflammation and improves survival in βENaC-Tg mice. These data provide rationale for human trials of MUC-031 in muco-obstructive lung diseases.

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