Physiology Commons^™

Efficient Cocaine Degradation By Cocaine Esterase-Loaded Red Blood Cells, Luigia Rossi, Francesca Pierigè, Marco Agostini, Noemi Bigini, Veronica Termopoli, Yingting Cai, Fang Zheng, Chang-Guo Zhan, Donald W. Landry, Mauro Magnani

Molecular Modeling and Biopharmaceutical Center Faculty Publications

Recombinant bacterial cocaine esterase (CocE) represents a potential protein therapeutic for cocaine use disorder treatment. Unfortunately, the native enzyme was highly unstable and the corresponding mutagenized derivatives, RBP-8000 and E196-301, although improving in vitro thermo-stability and in vivo half-life, were a partial solution to the problem. For cocaine use disorder treatment, an efficient cocaine-metabolizing enzyme with a longer residence time in circulation would be needed. We investigated in vitro the possibility of developing red blood cells (RBCs) loaded with RBP-8000 and E196-301 as a biocompatible system to metabolize cocaine for a longer period of time. RBP 8000 stability within human …