Ultra-Sensitive IL-11 Target Engagement Assay Development

Webinar

Interleukin-11 (IL-11) is an interesting and unique pleiotropic cytokine, originally characterized as a hematopoietic cytokine with thrombopoietic activity. Yet recently, IL-11 has been implicated in fibrotic diseases of the lung, liver, and kidney. Unfortunately, however, initial IL-11 assays lacked sufficient sensitivity to measure the cytokine in pre-clinical species and human plasma. More recently, antibody generation campaigns have identified a diverse, high-affinity set of anti-IL-11 mAbs to enable the successful development of novel, custom ultra-sensitive target engagement assays for detection of “free” (unbound to the dosed anti-IL-11 therapeutic mAb) and “total” (free and mAb-IL-11 complexed form) IL-11 in pre-clinical species and human. Since IL-11 has been implicated in various diseases, the ability to measure this cytokine in more than 90% of healthy donors and >80% of patients with diverse fibrotic diseases shows potential utility as a target engagement biomarker in the clinic and is pivotal in understanding the underlying pathobiology options for targeted therapy.

In this GEN webinar, featuring Research Scientist Leggairre Radden 11 and Senior Scientist Maria Myzithras, both from Boehringer Ingelheim, we will learn some insights into IL-11’s role in fibrotic diseases of the lung, liver, and kidney. Moreover, we will hear how and why many of the initial IL-11 assays lacked sufficient sensitivity to measure the protein in clinical and pre-clinical samples. Finally, our presenters will describe the manner in which they screened and identified important IL-11 mAbs using the Simoa and SP-X Technology from Quanterix.