1. Carcinogenicity risk assessment of romosozumab: A review of scientific weight-of-evidence and findings in a rat lifetime pharmacology study
- Author
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Aurora Varela, Luc Chouinard, Sabina Buntich, Nacera Mellal, Michael S. Ominsky, Peter C. Mann, Jacquelin Jolette, Rana Samadfam, Melanie Felx, Rogely W. Boyce, Kathrin Locher, Susan Y. Smith, and Ian Pyrah
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Carcinogenicity Tests ,Sclerostin antibody ,Osteoporosis ,Romosozumab ,Biology ,Pharmacology ,Toxicology ,Risk Assessment ,Bone resorption ,Mice ,03 medical and health sciences ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Chronic toxicity ,Neoplasms ,medicine ,Animals ,Humans ,Carcinogenicity ,Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ,Wnt signaling pathway ,Antibodies, Monoclonal ,LRP6 ,LRP5 ,General Medicine ,medicine.disease ,Rats ,030104 developmental biology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Null antibody ,chemistry ,Osteocyte ,Sclerostin - Abstract
Romosozumab is a humanized immunoglobulin G2 monoclonal antibody that binds and blocks the action of sclerostin, a protein secreted by the osteocyte and an extracellular inhibitor of canonical Wnt signaling. Blockade of sclerostin binding to low-density lipoprotein receptor-related proteins 5 and 6 (LRP5 and LRP6) allows Wnt ligands to activate canonical Wnt signaling in bone, increasing bone formation and decreasing bone resorption, making sclerostin an attractive target for osteoporosis therapy. Because romosozumab is a bone-forming agent and an activator of canonical Wnt signaling, questions have arisen regarding a potential carcinogenic risk. Weight-of-evidence factors used in the assessment of human carcinogenic risk of romosozumab included features of canonical Wnt signaling, expression pattern of sclerostin, phenotype of loss-of-function mutations in humans and mice, mode and mechanism of action of romosozumab, and findings from romosozumab chronic toxicity studies in rats and monkeys. Although the weight-of-evidence factors supported that romosozumab would pose a low carcinogenic risk to humans, the carcinogenic potential of romosozumab was assessed in a rat lifetime study. There were no romosozumab-related effects on tumor incidence in rats. The findings of the lifetime study and the weight-of-evidence factors collectively indicate that romosozumab administration would not pose a carcinogenic risk to humans.
- Published
- 2016
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