1
|
Van Trimpont M, Schalk AM, De Visser Y, Nguyen HA, Reunes L, Vandemeulebroecke K, Peeters E, Su Y, Lee H, Lorenzi PL, Chan WK, Mondelaers V, De Moerloose B, Lammens T, Goossens S, Van Vlierberghe P, Lavie A. In vivo stabilization of a less toxic asparaginase variant leads to a durable antitumor response in acute leukemia. Haematologica 2022; 108:409-419. [PMID: 35979719 PMCID: PMC9890011 DOI: 10.3324/haematol.2022.281390] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2002] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Asparagine is a non-essential amino acid since it can either be taken up via the diet or synthesized by asparagine synthetase. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells do not express asparagine synthetase or express it only minimally, which makes them completely dependent on extracellular asparagine for their growth and survival. This dependency makes ALL cells vulnerable to treatment with L-asparaginase, an enzyme that hydrolyzes asparagine. To date, all clinically approved L-asparaginases have significant L-glutaminase co-activity, associated with non-immune related toxic side effects observed during therapy. Therefore, reduction of L-glutaminase co-activity with concomitant maintenance of its anticancer L-asparaginase effect may effectively improve the tolerability of this unique drug. Previously, we designed a new alternative variant of Erwinia chrysanthemi (ErA; Erwinaze) with decreased L-glutaminase co-activity, while maintaining its L-asparaginase activity, by the introduction of three key mutations around the active site (ErA-TM). However, Erwinaze and our ErA-TM variant have very short half-lives in vivo. Here, we show that the fusion of ErA-TM with an albumin binding domain (ABD)-tag significantly increases its in vivo persistence. In addition, we evaluated the in vivo therapeutic efficacy of ABD-ErA-TM in a B-ALL xenograft model of SUP-B15. Our results show a comparable long-lasting durable antileukemic effect between the standard-of-care pegylated-asparaginase and ABD-ErA-TM L-asparaginase, but with fewer co-glutaminase-related acute side effects. Since the toxic side effects of current L-asparaginases often result in treatment discontinuation in ALL patients, this novel ErA-TM variant with ultra-low L-glutaminase co-activity and long in vivo persistence may have great clinical potential.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maaike Van Trimpont
- Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG), Ghent, Belgium,Department of Biomolecular Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium,Department of Diagnostic Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Amanda M. Schalk
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Yanti De Visser
- Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG), Ghent, Belgium,Department of Biomolecular Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium,Department of Imaging and Pathology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Hien Anh Nguyen
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Lindy Reunes
- Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG), Ghent, Belgium,Department of Biomolecular Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Katrien Vandemeulebroecke
- Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG), Ghent, Belgium,Department of Pediatric Hemato-Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium,Department of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Evelien Peeters
- Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG), Ghent, Belgium,Department of Diagnostic Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Ying Su
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Hyun Lee
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Chicago, IL, USA,Biophysics Core at Research Resources Center, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Philip L. Lorenzi
- Metabolomics Core Facility, Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Wai-Kin Chan
- Metabolomics Core Facility, Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Veerle Mondelaers
- Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG), Ghent, Belgium,Department of Pediatric Hemato-Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Barbara De Moerloose
- Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG), Ghent, Belgium,Department of Pediatric Hemato-Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium,Department of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Tim Lammens
- Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG), Ghent, Belgium,Department of Pediatric Hemato-Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium,Department of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Steven Goossens
- Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG), Ghent, Belgium,Department of Diagnostic Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Pieter Van Vlierberghe
- Cancer Research Institute Ghent (CRIG), Ghent, Belgium,Department of Biomolecular Medicine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium,#PVV and AL contributed equally as co-senior authors
| | - Arnon Lavie
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA; The Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, Chicago, IL.
| |
Collapse
|