Introducing Glycolinkers for the Functionalization of Cytotoxic Drugs and Applications in Antibody-Drug Conjugation Chemistry

Specific peptide conjugation to a therapeutic antibody leads to enhanced therapeutic potency and thermal stability by reduced Fc dynamics

Antibody-drug conjugates are powerful tools for combatting a wide array of cancers. Drug conjugation to a therapeutic antibody often alters molecular characteristics, such as hydrophobicity and effector function, resulting in quality deterioration. To develop a drug conjugation methodology that maintains the molecular characteristics of the antibody, we engineered a specific peptide for conjugation to the Fc region. We used trastuzumab and the chelator (DOTA) as model antibody and payload, respectively. Interestingly, peptide/DOTA-conjugated trastuzumab exhibited enhanced antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and increased thermal stability. Detailed structural and thermodynamic analysis clarified that the conjugated peptide blocks the Fc dynamics like a "wedge." We revealed that (1) decreased molecular entropy results in enhanced ADCC, and (2) blockade of Fc denaturation results in increased thermal stability. Thus, we believe that our methodology is superior not only for drug conjugation but also as for reinforcing therapeutic antibodies to enhance ADCC and thermal stability.

Antibody drug conjugates in gastrointestinal cancer: From lab to clinical development

The antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are one the fastest growing biotherapeutics in oncology and are still in their infancy in gastrointestinal (GI) cancer for clinical applications to improve patient survival. The ADC based approach is developed with tumor specific antigen, antibody carrying cytotoxic agents to precisely target and deliver chemotherapeutics at the tumor site. To date, 11 ADCs have been approved by US-FDA, and more than 80 are in the clinical development phase for different oncological indications. However, The ADCs based therapies in GI cancers are still far from having high-efficient clinical outcomes. The limited success of these ADCs and lessons learned from the past are now being used to develop a newer generation of ADC against GI cancers. In this review, we did a comprehensive assessment of the key components of ADCs, including tumor marker, antibody, cytotoxic payload, and linkage strategy, with a focus on technical improvement and some future trends in the pipeline for clinical translation. The various preclinical and clinical ADCs used in gastrointestinal malignancies, their target, composition and bioconjugation, along with preclinical and clinical outcomes, are discussed. The emphasis is also given to new generation ADCs employing novel mAb, payload, linker, and bioconjugation methods are also included.

Carbohydrates: Potential Sweet Tools Against Cancer

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Cancer, one of the most devastating degenerative diseases nowadays, is one of the main targets in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmaceutical industry. Due to the significant increase in the incidence of cancer within world population, together with the complexity of such disease, featured with a multifactorial nature, access to new drugs targeting different biological targets connected to cancer is highly necessary.

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Among the vast arsenal of compounds exhibiting antitumor activities, this review will cover the use of carbohydrate derivatives as privileged scaffolds. Their hydrophilic nature, together with their capacity of establishing selective interactions with biological receptors located on cell surface, involved in cell-to-cell communication processes, has allowed the development of an ample number of new templates useful in cancer treatment.

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Their intrinsic water solubility has allowed their use as of pro-drug carriers for accessing more efficiently the pharmaceutical targets. The preparation of glycoconjugates in which the carbohydrate is tethered to a pharmacophore has also allowed a better permeation of the drug through cellular membranes, in which selective interactions with the carbohydrate motifs are involved. In this context, the design of multivalent structures (e.g. gold nanoparticles) has been demonstrated to enhance crucial interactions with biological receptors like lectins, glycoproteins that can be involved in cancer progression.

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Moreover, the modification of the carbohydrate structural motif, by incorporation of metal complexes, or by replacing their endocyclic oxygen, or carbon atoms with heteroatoms has led to new antitumor agents.

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Such diversity of sugar-based templates with relevant antitumor activity will be covered in this review.

Novel Silyl Ether-Based Acid-Cleavable Antibody-MMAE Conjugates with Appropriate Stability and Efficacy

Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) is a novel efficient drug delivery system that has been successfully used in clinical practice, and it has become a research hotspot in the anti-tumor drug field. Acid-cleavable linkers were first used in clinical ADCs, but their structural variety (e.g., hydrazone and carbonate) is still limited, and their stability is usually insufficient. Designing novel acid-cleavable linkers for the conjugation of the popular cytotoxin monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE) has always been a significant topic. In this paper, we generate a novel, silyl ether-based acid-cleavable antibody-MMAE conjugate, which skillfully achieves efficient combination of amino-conjugated MMAE with the acid-triggered silyl ether group by introducing p-hydroxybenzyl alcohol (PHB). The stability, acid-dependence cleavage, effective mechanism, efficacy and safety of the resulting ADC were systematically studied; the results show that it exhibits a significant improvement in stability, while maintaining appropriate efficacy and controlled therapeutic toxicity. This strategy is expected to expand a new type of acid-cleavable linkers for the development of ADCs with highly potent payloads.

Increasing the Potential of the Auristatin Cancer-Drug Family by Shifting the Conformational Equilibrium

Monomethyl auristatin E and monomethyl auristatin F are widely used cytotoxic agents in antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs), a group of promising cancer drugs. The ADCs specifically target cancer cells, releasing the auristatins inside, which results in the prevention of mitosis. The auristatins suffer from a potentially serious flaw, however. In solution, the molecules exist in an equal mixture of two conformers, cis and trans. Only the trans-isomer is biologically active and the isomerization process, i.e., the conversion of cis to trans is slow. This significantly diminishes the efficiency of the drugs and their corresponding ADCs, and perhaps more importantly, raises concerns over drug safety. The potency of the auristatins would be enhanced by decreasing the amount of the biologically inactive isomer, either by stabilizing the trans-isomer or destabilizing the cis-isomer. Here, we follow the computer-aided design strategy of shifting the conformational equilibrium and employ high-level quantum chemical modeling to identify promising candidates for improved auristatins. Coupled cluster calculations predict that a simple halogenation in the norephedrine/phenylalanine residues shifts the isomer equilibrium almost completely toward the active trans-conformation, due to enhanced intramolecular interactions specific to the active isomer.

Dual Site-Specific Antibody Conjugates for Sequential and Orthogonal Cargo Release

Antibody-drug conjugates utilize the antigen specificity of antibodies and the potency of chemotherapeutic and antibiotic drugs for targeted therapy. However, as cancers and bacteria evolve to resist the action of drugs, innovative controlled release methods must be engineered to deliver multidrug cocktails. In this work, we engineer lipoate-acid ligase A (LplA) acceptor peptide (LAP) tags into the constant heavy and light chain of a humanized Her2 targeted antibody, trastuzumab. These engineered LAP tags, along with the glutamine 295 (Q295) residue in the heavy chain, were used to generate orthogonally cleavable site-specific antibody conjugates via a one-pot chemoenzymatic ligation with microbial transglutaminase (mTG) and LplA. We demonstrate orthogonal cargo release from these dual-labeled antibody bioconjugates via matrix metalloproteinase-2 and cathepsin-B-mediated bond cleavage. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of temporal control on dual-labeled antibody conjugates, and we believe this platform will allow for sequential release and cooperative drug combinations on a single antibody bioconjugate.

Assessing the Interactions of Auristatin Derivatives with Mixed Phospholipid-Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Aggregate Dispersions

The aim of this study was to assess what properties of the pseudostationary phases in electrokinetic capillary chromatography affect the interactions between monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE) and hydrophilically modified structural analogues thereof with various lipophilic phases. MMAE is a widely used cytotoxic agent in antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), which are used as selective biopharmaceutical drugs in the treatment of cancers. MMAE and its derivatives are highly lipophilic, yet they fail to interact with biomimicking phosphatidylcholine-phosphatidylserine liposomes. To reveal what properties affect the interaction of the auristatin derivatives with cell plasma membrane-mimicking vesicles, capillary electrokinetic chromatography was used with four different types of micellar and vesicular pseudostationary phases: pure vesicles, mixed vesicles, mixed micelles, and pure micelles. Vesicular phases were composed of pure phospholipids [dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) and dilauroylphosphatidylcholine (DLPC)] and phospholipid-surfactant mixtures [sodium dodecyl sulfate, (SDS) with DMPC and DLPC] while the micellar phases comprised pure surfactant (SDS) and surfactant-phospholipid mixtures (SDS-DMPC and SDS-DLPC). In addition, differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic light scattering were used to monitor the aggregate composition. Our data shows that the interaction between hydrophobic auristatin derivatives and hydrophobic pseudostationary phases critically depends on the type, size, and hydrogen bonding capability of the pseudostationary phases.

New linker structures applied in glycosite-specific antibody drug conjugates

Two new linkers employed in glycosite-specific antibody–drug conjugates demonstrate efficient conjugation, enhanced stability, and fluorescence properties.

Hydrophilic Monomethyl Auristatin E Derivatives as Novel Candidates for the Design of Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are promising state-of-the-art biopharmaceutical drugs for selective drug-delivery applications and the treatment of diseases such as cancer. The idea behind the ADC technology is remarkable as it combines the highly selective targeting capacity of monoclonal antibodies with the cancer-killing ability of potent cytotoxic agents. The continuous development of improved ADCs requires systematic studies on the nature and effects of warhead modification. Recently, we focused on the hydrophilic modification of monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE), the most widely used cytotoxic agent in current clinical trial ADCs. Herein, we report on the use of micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) for studying the hydrophobic character of modified MMAE derivatives. Our data reveal a connection between the hydrophobicity of the modified warheads as free molecules and their cytotoxic activity. In addition, MMAE-trastuzumab ADCs were constructed and evaluated in preliminary cytotoxic assays.

Hydrophilic Auristatin Glycoside Payload Enables Improved Antibody-Drug Conjugate Efficacy and Biocompatibility

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) offer a combination of antibody therapy and specific delivery of potent small-molecule payloads to target cells. The properties of the ADC molecule are determined by the balance of its components. The efficacy of the payload component increases with higher drug-to-antibody ratio (DAR), while homogeneous DAR = 8 ADCs are easily prepared by conjugation to the four accessible antibody hinge cystines. However, use of hydrophobic payloads has permitted only DAR = 2-4, due to poor pharmacokinetics and aggregation problems. Here, we describe generation and characterization of homogeneous DAR = 8 ADCs carrying a novel auristatin β-D-glucuronide, MMAU. The glycoside payload contributed to overall hydrophilicity of the ADC reducing aggregation. Compared to standard DAR = 2-4 ADCs, cytotoxicity of the homogeneous DAR = 8 ADCs was improved to low-picomolar IC₅₀ values against cancer cells in vitro. Bystander efficacy was restored after ADC internalization and subsequent cleavage of the glycoside, although unconjugated MMAU was relatively non-toxic to cells. DAR = 8 MMAU ADCs were effective against target antigen-expressing xenograft tumors. The ADCs were also studied in 3D in vitro patient-derived xenograft (PDX) assays where they outperformed clinically used ADC. In conclusion, increased hydrophilicity of the payload contributed to the ADC's hydrophilicity, stability and safety to non-target cells, while significantly improving cytotoxicity and enabling bystander efficacy.

A mild acetolysis procedure for the regioselective removal of isopropylidene in di-O-isopropylidene-protected pyranoside systems

A mild acetolysis method for the regioselective removal of isopropylidene group from di-O-isopropylidene-protected hexopyranosides is reported. O-Isopropylidene-protected intermediates play an important role in carbohydrate chemistry, as they are often found in commercially available furanosyl and pyranosyl materials, and some of them contain more than one O-isopropylidene groups. Methods that permit regioselective removal of O-isopropylidene groups are extremely valuable, as the number of steps in the total synthesis of complex oligosaccharides could be significantly decreased. Here we report that trifluoroacetic acid (TFA)/acetic anhydride (Ac₂O) can be used to regioselectively convert one of the two O-isopropylidene groups to vicinal di-O-acetates in the di-O-isopropylidene-protected galacto- and fructo-pyranosyl systems, and the reagent is compatible with some common functionalities such as sulfonate esters, bromide, azide etc.

Strategies and challenges for the next generation of antibody-drug conjugates

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are one of the fastest growing classes of oncology therapeutics. After half a century of research, the approvals of brentuximab vedotin (in 2011) and trastuzumab emtansine (in 2013) have paved the way for ongoing clinical trials that are evaluating more than 60 further ADC candidates. The limited success of first-generation ADCs (developed in the early 2000s) informed strategies to bring second-generation ADCs to the market, which have higher levels of cytotoxic drug conjugation, lower levels of naked antibodies and more-stable linkers between the drug and the antibody. Furthermore, lessons learned during the past decade are now being used in the development of third-generation ADCs. In this Review, we discuss strategies to select the best target antigens as well as suitable cytotoxic drugs; the design of optimized linkers; the discovery of bioorthogonal conjugation chemistries; and toxicity issues. The selection and engineering of antibodies for site-specific drug conjugation, which will result in higher homogeneity and increased stability, as well as the quest for new conjugation chemistries and mechanisms of action, are priorities in ADC research.