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Zheng H, Guo B, Qiu X, Xia Y, Qu Y, Cheng L, Meng F, Zhong Z. Polymersome-mediated cytosolic delivery of cyclic dinucleotide STING agonist enhances tumor immunotherapy. Bioact Mater 2022; 16:1-11. [PMID: 35386324 PMCID: PMC8958419 DOI: 10.1016/j.bioactmat.2022.02.029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2021] [Revised: 02/15/2022] [Accepted: 02/22/2022] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs) as stimulator of interferon genes (STING) agonists capable of inducing strong antitumor innate immune response are highly promising for tumor immunotherapy. The efficacy of these CDNs is, however, reduced greatly by their fast clearance, poor cell uptake and inefficient cytosolic transportation. Here, we report that reduction-responsive biodegradable chimaeric polymersomes (CPs) markedly enhance tumor retention and cytosolic delivery of a synthetic CDN, ADU-S100, and bolster STING pathway activation in the tumor microenvironment and tumor draining lymph nodes, giving significantly better tumor repression and survival of B16F10 melanoma-bearing mice compared with free CDN control. The superiority of CPs-mediated CDN delivery is further verified in combination therapy with low-dose fractionated radiation, which brings about clearly stronger and longer-term immunotherapeutic effects and protection against tumor re-challenge. The development of nano-STING agonists that are able to overcome the delivery barriers of CDNs represents an effective strategy to potentiate cancer immunotherapy. Chimaeric polymersomes (CPs) show efficient loading of STING agonist cyclic dinucleotide. Intratumoral injection of CPs-CDN gives notable tumor accumulation and cytosolic delivery of STING agonist. CPs-CDN activate STING pathway in tumor microenvironment and tumor draining lymph node, giving significant tumor repression and survival of melanoma mice. CPs-CDN combined with low-dose fractionated X ray irradiation led to further boosted immunotherapy with 3/7 cured mice. Nano-STING agonists can overcome the delivery barriers of CDNs and potentiate durable cancer immunotherapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huan Zheng
- Biomedical Polymers Laboratory, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, and State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, PR China
| | - Beibei Guo
- Biomedical Polymers Laboratory, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, and State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, PR China
| | - Xinyun Qiu
- Biomedical Polymers Laboratory, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, and State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, PR China
| | - Yifeng Xia
- Biomedical Polymers Laboratory, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, and State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, PR China
| | - Yan Qu
- Biomedical Polymers Laboratory, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, and State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, PR China
| | - Liang Cheng
- Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, PR China
- Corresponding author.
| | - Fenghua Meng
- Biomedical Polymers Laboratory, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, and State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, PR China
- Corresponding author.
| | - Zhiyuan Zhong
- Biomedical Polymers Laboratory, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, and State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, PR China
- Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, PR China
- Corresponding author. Biomedical Polymers Laboratory, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, and State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, PR China.
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Ye R, Qiao Y, Singh PK, Wang Y, He J, Li N, Krishnan S, Lin SH. High-Content Clonogenic Survival Screen to Identify Chemoradiation Sensitizers. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2021; 111:e27-e37. [PMID: 34348174 PMCID: PMC9986843 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2021.07.1712] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2021] [Accepted: 07/27/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE The combination of cytotoxic chemotherapy with radiation therapy (CRT) has resulted in significant improvements in clinical outcomes for patients with many locally advanced unresectable cancers. Only a small proportion of patients achieve pathologic complete responses to CRT; combination of CRT with targeted agents offers the promise of further improving treatment responses. However, numerous clinical trials have failed to show an improvement in clinical outcomes with the addition of targeted agents. To increase the accessibility of our screening method and accelerate the pace at which novel combinations with CRT are identified and incorporated into standard practices for treatments, we report details on screening method optimization, data generation, and downstream data analysis. METHODS In part, the gap in translation to large, expensive, and ultimately unsuccessful clinical trials reflects the shortcomings of inconsistently designed, executed, and reported preclinical data on which these studies are based. In an effort to standardize the selection of agents for future clinical testing, we have designed, optimized and validated a high throughput, high content, clonogenic assay platform for step-wise progression of preclinical studies from in vitro to in vivo in non-small cell lung cancer and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. RESULTS This highly stable in vitro method was standardized for identification of the most promising CTEP drugs that could best be combined with CRT from among as screen of multiple agents tested in an unbiased manner using 96-well plates. The methodology lends itself to seamless testing of multiple agents in a similar fashion allowing cross-comparisons, evaluation of CRT, or radiation therapy alone, and testing multiple concentrations of test agents sequenced at different times before and after radiation. The method identified Trametinib as a strong CRT sensitizer in KRAS-mutant non-small cell lung cancer and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cell lines. This platform has enabled the screening and identification of several chemoradiation sensitizers. CONCLUSIONS High throughput, high content clonogenic drug screening assay allows for the rapid identification of targets and agents to be translated to the clinic to help improve the effectiveness of current standard of care CRT in various solid tumors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rui Ye
- Department of Radiation Oncology, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Graduate School of Biological Sciences, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Yawei Qiao
- Department of Radiation Oncology, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Pankaj K. Singh
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL 32224, USA
| | - Yifan Wang
- Department of Radiation Oncology, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Jianzhong He
- Department of Radiation Oncology, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Nan Li
- Department of Radiation Oncology, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Sunil Krishnan
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL 32224, USA
| | - Steven H. Lin
- Department of Radiation Oncology, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Graduate School of Biological Sciences, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
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Singh PK, Deorukhkar AA, Venkatesulu BP, Li X, Tailor R, Bomalaski JS, Krishnan S. Exploiting Arginine Auxotrophy with Pegylated Arginine Deiminase (ADI-PEG20) to Sensitize Pancreatic Cancer to Radiotherapy via Metabolic Dysregulation. Mol Cancer Ther 2019; 18:2381-2393. [PMID: 31395686 DOI: 10.1158/1535-7163.mct-18-0708] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2018] [Revised: 12/05/2018] [Accepted: 08/02/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Distinct metabolic vulnerabilities of cancer cells compared with normal cells can potentially be exploited for therapeutic targeting. Deficiency of argininosuccinate synthetase-1 (ASS1) in pancreatic cancers creates auxotrophy for the semiessential amino acid arginine. We explored the therapeutic potential of depleting exogenous arginine via pegylated arginine deiminase (ADI-PEG20) treatment as an adjunct to radiotherapy. We evaluated the efficacy of treatment of human pancreatic cancer cell lines and xenografts with ADI-PEG20 and radiation via clonogenic assays and tumor growth delay experiments. We also investigated potential mechanisms of action using reverse-phase protein array, Western blotting, and IHC and immunofluorescence staining. ADI-PEG20 potently radiosensitized ASS1-deficient pancreatic cancer cells (MiaPaCa-2, Panc-1, AsPc-1, HPAC, and CaPan-1), but not ASS1-expressing cell lines (Bxpc3, L3.6pl, and SW1990). Reverse phase protein array studies confirmed increased expression of proteins related to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and apoptosis, which were confirmed by Western blot analysis. Inhibition of ER stress signaling with 4-phenylbutyrate abrogated the expression of ER stress proteins and reversed radiosensitization by ADI-PEG20. Independent in vivo studies in two xenograft models confirmed significant tumor growth delays, which were associated with enhanced expression of ER stress proteins and apoptosis markers and reduced expression of proliferation and angiogenesis markers. ADI-PEG20 augmented the effects of radiation by triggering the ER stress pathway, leading to apoptosis in pancreatic tumor cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pankaj K Singh
- Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
| | - Amit A Deorukhkar
- Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
| | - Bhanu P Venkatesulu
- Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
| | - Xiaolin Li
- Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
| | - Ramesh Tailor
- Department of Radiation Physics, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
| | | | - Sunil Krishnan
- Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
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Kunos CA, Capala J. National Cancer Institute Programmatic Collaboration for Investigational Radiopharmaceuticals. Am Soc Clin Oncol Educ Book 2018; 38:488-494. [PMID: 30231365 DOI: 10.1200/edbk_200199] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Radiopharmaceutical therapies have provided an attractive therapeutic approach since the introduction of 131I to treat thyroid cancer. New insights in cancer biology and radiochemistry have brought radiopharmaceuticals to the leading edge of oncology clinical research. National Cancer Institute (NCI) programs watch for new radiopharmaceutical breakthroughs that should be used to treat patients with unmet therapeutic needs. Such efforts occur through leveraged partnerships between NCI's Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program and its Radiation Research Program. If groundbreaking discoveries are made, NCI pulls together clinician scientists to design novel radiopharmaceutical phase I and II monotherapy or combination trials. The specific infrastructure needs, such as radiopharmaceutical dosimetry and treatment planning, demand new programmatic workflow and regulatory oversight. This article discusses a modern approach to the development of radiopharmaceutical therapies in the era of personalized medicine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charles A Kunos
- From the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD; Radiation Research Program, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
| | - Jacek Capala
- From the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD; Radiation Research Program, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
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Kunos CA, Coleman CN. Current and Future Initiatives for Radiation Oncology at the National Cancer Institute in the Era of Precision Medicine. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2018; 102:18-25. [PMID: 29325810 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2017.02.225] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2017] [Revised: 02/07/2017] [Accepted: 02/28/2017] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Charles A Kunos
- Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland.
| | - C Norman Coleman
- Radiation Research Program, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
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