Evaluation of Targeting Efficiency of Joints with Anticollagen II Antibodies

Diseases of the joints affect over 10% of the world’s population, resulting in significant morbidity. There is an unmet need in strategies for specific delivery of therapeutics to the joints. Collagen type II is synthesized by chondrocytes and is mainly restricted to the cartilage and tendons. Arthrogen-CIA is a commercially available anticollagen II antibody cocktail that reacts with 5 different epitopes on human, bovine, and mouse collagen II. Arthrogen has been used for induction of experimental rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in mice because of high complement activation on the cartilage surface. Native collagen II might serve as a useful target for potential delivery of therapeutics to the joint. To evaluate the efficiency and specificity of targeting collagen II, Arthrogen was labeled with near-infrared (NIR) dye IRDye 800 or IRDye 680. Using ex vivo NIR imaging, we demonstrate that Arthrogen efficiently and specifically accumulated in the limb joints regardless of the label dye or injection route (intravenous and subcutaneous). After subcutaneous injection, the mean fluorescence of the hind limb joints was 19 times higher than that of the heart, 8.7 times higher than that of the liver, and 3.7 times higher than that of the kidney. Control mouse IgG did not show appreciable accumulation. Microscopically, the antibody accumulated on the cartilage surface of joints and on endosteal surfaces. A monoclonal antibody against a single epitope of collagen II showed similar binding affinity and elimination half-life, but about three times lower targeting efficiency than Arthrogen in vitro and ex vivo, and about two times lower targeting efficiency in vivo. We suggest that an antibody against multiple epitopes of collagen II could be developed into a highly effective and specific targeting strategy for diseases of the joints or spine.