1
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Tao J, Dhanjee HH, Gribble MW, Kottisch V, Rodriguez J, Brown JS, Schmidt H, Juneja J, Denhez F, Lee PS, Lipovšek D, Krystek S, Zhang Y, Bousquet P, Zhang Y, Pentelute BL, Buchwald SL. Site-Specific Antibody Prodrugs via S-Arylation: a Bioconjugation Approach Toward Masked Tyrosine Analogues. J Am Chem Soc 2024. [PMID: 39001844 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.4c04035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/15/2024]
Abstract
The utility of antibody therapeutics is hampered by potential cross-reactivity with healthy tissue. Over the past decade, significant advances have been made in the design of activatable antibodies, which increase, or create altogether, the therapeutic window of a parent antibody. Of these, antibody prodrugs (pro-antibodies) are masked antibodies that have advanced the most for therapeutic use. They are designed to reveal the active, parent antibody only when encountering proteases upregulated in the microenvironment of the targeted disease tissue, thereby minimizing off-target activity. However, current pro-antibody designs are relegated to fusion proteins that append masking groups restricted to the use of only canonical amino acids, offering excellent control of the site of introduction, but with no authority over where the masking group is installed other than the N-terminus of the antibody. Here, we present a palladium-based bioconjugation approach for the site-specific introduction of a masked tyrosine mimic in the complementary determining region of the FDA approved antibody therapeutic ipilimumab used as a model system. The approach enables the introduction of a protease cleavable group tethered to noncanonical polymers (polyethylene glycol (PEG)) resulting in 47-fold weaker binding to cells expressing CTLA-4, the target antigen of ipilimumab. Upon exposure to tumor-associated proteases, the masking group is cleaved, unveiling a tyrosine-mimic (dubbed hydroxyphenyl cysteine (HPC)) that restores (>90% restoration) binding affinity to its target antigen.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jason Tao
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Heemal H Dhanjee
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Michael W Gribble
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Veronika Kottisch
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Jacob Rodriguez
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Joseph S Brown
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Holly Schmidt
- Research and Early Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, P.O. Box 4000, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States
| | - Juhi Juneja
- Research and Early Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, P.O. Box 4000, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States
| | - Fabienne Denhez
- Research and Early Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, P.O. Box 4000, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States
| | - Peter S Lee
- Research and Early Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, P.O. Box 4000, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States
| | - Daša Lipovšek
- Research and Early Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, P.O. Box 4000, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States
| | - Stanley Krystek
- Research and Early Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, P.O. Box 4000, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States
| | - Yihong Zhang
- Research and Early Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, P.O. Box 4000, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States
| | - Patrick Bousquet
- Research and Early Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, P.O. Box 4000, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States
| | - Yong Zhang
- Research and Early Development, Bristol Myers Squibb, P.O. Box 4000, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States
| | - Bradley L Pentelute
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
- The Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 500 Main Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, United States
- Center for Environmental Health Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, United States
| | - Stephen L Buchwald
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
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2
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Plaper T, Rihtar E, Železnik Ramuta T, Forstnerič V, Jazbec V, Ivanovski F, Benčina M, Jerala R. The art of designed coiled-coils for the regulation of mammalian cells. Cell Chem Biol 2024:S2451-9456(24)00220-4. [PMID: 38971158 DOI: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2024.06.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2024] [Revised: 05/04/2024] [Accepted: 06/11/2024] [Indexed: 07/08/2024]
Abstract
Synthetic biology aims to engineer complex biological systems using modular elements, with coiled-coil (CC) dimer-forming modules are emerging as highly useful building blocks in the regulation of protein assemblies and biological processes. Those small modules facilitate highly specific and orthogonal protein-protein interactions, offering versatility for the regulation of diverse biological functions. Additionally, their design rules enable precise control and tunability over these interactions, which are crucial for specific applications. Recent advancements showcase their potential for use in innovative therapeutic interventions and biomedical applications. In this review, we discuss the potential of CCs, exploring their diverse applications in mammalian cells, such as synthetic biological circuit design, transcriptional and allosteric regulation, cellular assemblies, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell regulation, and genome editing and their role in advancing the understanding and regulation of cellular processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tjaša Plaper
- Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Erik Rihtar
- Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Taja Železnik Ramuta
- Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Vida Forstnerič
- Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Vid Jazbec
- Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Filip Ivanovski
- Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Mojca Benčina
- Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia; Centre for Technologies of Gene and Cell Therapy, Hajdrihova 19, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Roman Jerala
- Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia; Centre for Technologies of Gene and Cell Therapy, Hajdrihova 19, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
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3
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Moquist PN, Zhang X, Leiske CI, Eng-Duncan NML, Zeng W, Bindman NA, Wo SW, Wong A, Henderson CM, Crowder K, Lyon R, Doronina SO, Senter PD, Neff-LaFord HD, Sussman D, Gardai SJ, Levengood MR. Reversible Chemical Modification of Antibody Effector Function Mitigates Unwanted Systemic Immune Activation. Bioconjug Chem 2024; 35:855-866. [PMID: 38789102 PMCID: PMC11191404 DOI: 10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.4c00212] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2024] [Revised: 05/13/2024] [Accepted: 05/13/2024] [Indexed: 05/26/2024]
Abstract
Antibody effector functions including antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and phagocytosis (ADCP) are mediated through the interaction of the antibody Fc region with Fcγ receptors present on immune cells. Several approaches have been used to modulate antibody Fc-Fcγ interactions with the goal of driving an effective antitumor immune response, including Fc point mutations and glycan modifications. However, robust antibody-Fcγ engagement and immune cell binding of Fc-enhanced antibodies in the periphery can lead to the unwanted induction of systemic cytokine release and other dose-limiting infusion-related reactions. Creating a balance between effective engagement of Fcγ receptors that can induce antitumor activity without incurring systemic immune activation is an ongoing challenge in the field of antibody and immuno-oncology therapeutics. Herein, we describe a method for the reversible chemical modulation of antibody-Fcγ interactions using simple poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) linkers conjugated to antibody interchain disulfides with maleimide attachments. This method enables dosing of a therapeutic with muted Fcγ engagement that is restored in vivo in a time-dependent manner. The technology was applied to an effector function enhanced agonist CD40 antibody, SEA-CD40, and experiments demonstrate significant reductions in Fc-induced immune activation in vitro and in mice and nonhuman primates despite showing retained efficacy and improved pharmacokinetics compared to the parent antibody. We foresee that this simple, modular system can be rapidly applied to antibodies that suffer from systemic immune activation due to peripheral FcγR binding immediately upon infusion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip N. Moquist
- ADC
Chemistry, Pfizer, Inc., 21823 30th Dr. SE, Bothell, Washington 98021, United states
| | - Xinqun Zhang
- ADC
Antibody Engineering, Pfizer, Inc., 21823 30th Dr. SE, Bothell, Washington 98021, United States
| | - Chris I. Leiske
- ADC
Antibody Engineering, Pfizer, Inc., 21823 30th Dr. SE, Bothell, Washington 98021, United States
| | | | - Weiping Zeng
- ADC
In Vivo Pharmacology, Pfizer, Inc., 21823 30th Dr. SE, Bothell, Washington 98021, United States
| | - Noah A. Bindman
- ADC
Antibody Engineering, Pfizer, Inc., 21823 30th Dr. SE, Bothell, Washington 98021, United States
| | - Serena W. Wo
- ADC
Antibody Engineering, Pfizer, Inc., 21823 30th Dr. SE, Bothell, Washington 98021, United States
| | - Abbie Wong
- ADC
Translational Sciences, Pfizer, Inc., 21823 30th Dr. SE, Bothell, Washington 98021, United States
| | - Clark M. Henderson
- ADC
Translational Sciences, Pfizer, Inc., 21823 30th Dr. SE, Bothell, Washington 98021, United States
| | - Karalyne Crowder
- Non-Clinical
Sciences, Pfizer, Inc., 21823 30th Dr. SE, Bothell, Washington 98021, United States
| | - Robert Lyon
- ADC
Antibody Engineering, Pfizer, Inc., 21823 30th Dr. SE, Bothell, Washington 98021, United States
| | - Svetlana O. Doronina
- ADC
Chemistry, Pfizer, Inc., 21823 30th Dr. SE, Bothell, Washington 98021, United states
| | - Peter D. Senter
- ADC
Chemistry, Pfizer, Inc., 21823 30th Dr. SE, Bothell, Washington 98021, United states
| | - Haley D. Neff-LaFord
- Non-Clinical
Sciences, Pfizer, Inc., 21823 30th Dr. SE, Bothell, Washington 98021, United States
| | - Django Sussman
- ADC
Antibody Engineering, Pfizer, Inc., 21823 30th Dr. SE, Bothell, Washington 98021, United States
| | - Shyra J. Gardai
- Immunology, Pfizer,
Inc., 21823 30th Dr.
SE, Bothell, Washington 98021, United States
| | - Matthew R. Levengood
- ADC
Antibody Engineering, Pfizer, Inc., 21823 30th Dr. SE, Bothell, Washington 98021, United States
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4
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Dombrowsky CS, Happel D, Habermann J, Hofmann S, Otmi S, Cohen B, Kolmar H. A Conditionally Activated Cytosol-Penetrating Antibody for TME-Dependent Intracellular Cargo Delivery. Antibodies (Basel) 2024; 13:37. [PMID: 38804305 PMCID: PMC11130931 DOI: 10.3390/antib13020037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2024] [Revised: 04/23/2024] [Accepted: 04/28/2024] [Indexed: 05/29/2024] Open
Abstract
Currently, therapeutic and diagnostic applications of antibodies are primarily limited to cell surface-exposed and extracellular proteins. However, research has been conducted on cell-penetrating peptides (CPP), as well as cytosol-penetrating antibodies, to overcome these limitations. In this context, a heparin sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG)-binding antibody was serendipitously discovered, which eventually localizes to the cytosol of target cells. Functional characterization revealed that the tested antibody has beneficial cytosol-penetrating capabilities and can deliver cargo proteins (up to 70 kDa) to the cytosol. To achieve tumor-specific cell targeting and cargo delivery through conditional activation of the cell-penetrating antibody in the tumor microenvironment, a single-chain Fc fragment (scFv) and a VL domain were isolated as masking units. Several in vitro assays demonstrated that fusing the masking protein with a cleavable linker to the cell penetration antibody results in the inactivation of antibody cell binding and internalization. Removal of the mask via MMP-9 protease cleavage, a protease that is frequently overexpressed in the tumor microenvironment (TME), led to complete regeneration of binding and cytosol-penetrating capabilities. Masked and conditionally activated cytosol-penetrating antibodies have the potential to serve as a modular platform for delivering protein cargoes addressing intracellular targets in tumor cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carolin Sophie Dombrowsky
- Institute for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Technical University of Darmstadt, Peter-Grünberg-Strasse 4, D-64287 Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Dominic Happel
- Institute for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Technical University of Darmstadt, Peter-Grünberg-Strasse 4, D-64287 Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Jan Habermann
- Institute for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Technical University of Darmstadt, Peter-Grünberg-Strasse 4, D-64287 Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Sarah Hofmann
- Institute for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Technical University of Darmstadt, Peter-Grünberg-Strasse 4, D-64287 Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Sasi Otmi
- Inter-Lab, a Subsidiary of Merck KGaA, South Industrial Area, Yavne 8122004, Israel
| | - Benny Cohen
- Inter-Lab, a Subsidiary of Merck KGaA, South Industrial Area, Yavne 8122004, Israel
| | - Harald Kolmar
- Institute for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Technical University of Darmstadt, Peter-Grünberg-Strasse 4, D-64287 Darmstadt, Germany
- Centre for Synthetic Biology, Technical University of Darmstadt, D-64287 Darmstadt, Germany
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5
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Tsuchikama K, Anami Y, Ha SYY, Yamazaki CM. Exploring the next generation of antibody-drug conjugates. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 2024; 21:203-223. [PMID: 38191923 DOI: 10.1038/s41571-023-00850-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 20.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/12/2023] [Indexed: 01/10/2024]
Abstract
Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are a promising cancer treatment modality that enables the selective delivery of highly cytotoxic payloads to tumours. However, realizing the full potential of this platform necessitates innovative molecular designs to tackle several clinical challenges such as drug resistance, tumour heterogeneity and treatment-related adverse effects. Several emerging ADC formats exist, including bispecific ADCs, conditionally active ADCs (also known as probody-drug conjugates), immune-stimulating ADCs, protein-degrader ADCs and dual-drug ADCs, and each offers unique capabilities for tackling these various challenges. For example, probody-drug conjugates can enhance tumour specificity, whereas bispecific ADCs and dual-drug ADCs can address resistance and heterogeneity with enhanced activity. The incorporation of immune-stimulating and protein-degrader ADCs, which have distinct mechanisms of action, into existing treatment strategies could enable multimodal cancer treatment. Despite the promising outlook, the importance of patient stratification and biomarker identification cannot be overstated for these emerging ADCs, as these factors are crucial to identify patients who are most likely to derive benefit. As we continue to deepen our understanding of tumour biology and refine ADC design, we will edge closer to developing truly effective and safe ADCs for patients with treatment-refractory cancers. In this Review, we highlight advances in each ADC component (the monoclonal antibody, payload, linker and conjugation chemistry) and provide more-detailed discussions on selected examples of emerging novel ADCs of each format, enabled by engineering of one or more of these components.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kyoji Tsuchikama
- Texas Therapeutics Institute, The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
| | - Yasuaki Anami
- Texas Therapeutics Institute, The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Summer Y Y Ha
- Texas Therapeutics Institute, The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Chisato M Yamazaki
- Texas Therapeutics Institute, The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA
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6
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Biewenga L, Vermathen R, Rosier BJ, Merkx M. A Generic Antibody-Blocking Protein That Enables pH-Switchable Activation of Antibody Activity. ACS Chem Biol 2024; 19:48-57. [PMID: 38110237 PMCID: PMC10804362 DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.3c00449] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2023] [Revised: 11/30/2023] [Accepted: 11/30/2023] [Indexed: 12/20/2023]
Abstract
Molecular strategies that allow for reversible control of antibody activity have drawn considerable interest for both therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Protein M is a generic antibody-binding protein that binds to the Fv domain of IgGs and, in doing so, blocks antigen binding. However, the dissociation of protein M is essentially irreversible, which has precluded its use as an antibody affinity reagent and molecular mask to control antibody activity. Here, we show that introduction of 8 histidine residues on the Fv binding interface of protein M results in a variant that shows pH-switchable IgG binding. This protein M-8his variant provides an attractive and universal affinity resin for the purification of IgGs, antibody fragments (Fab and single-chain variable fragments (scFv)), and antibody conjugates. Moreover, protein M-8his enables the pH-dependent blocking of therapeutic antibodies, allowing the selective targeting of cells at pH 6.0.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lieuwe Biewenga
- Laboratory
of Chemical Biology, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
- Institute
for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven
University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
| | - Robin Vermathen
- Laboratory
of Chemical Biology, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
- Institute
for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven
University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
| | - Bas J.H.M. Rosier
- Laboratory
of Chemical Biology, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
- Institute
for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven
University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
| | - Maarten Merkx
- Laboratory
of Chemical Biology, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
- Institute
for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven
University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
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7
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Plaper T, Merljak E, Fink T, Satler T, Ljubetič A, Lainšček D, Jazbec V, Benčina M, Stevanoska S, Džeroski S, Jerala R. Designed allosteric protein logic. Cell Discov 2024; 10:8. [PMID: 38228615 DOI: 10.1038/s41421-023-00635-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2023] [Accepted: 12/03/2023] [Indexed: 01/18/2024] Open
Abstract
The regulation of protein function by external or internal signals is one of the key features of living organisms. The ability to directly control the function of a selected protein would represent a valuable tool for regulating biological processes. Here, we present a generally applicable regulation of proteins called INSRTR, based on inserting a peptide into a loop of a target protein that retains its function. We demonstrate the versatility and robustness of coiled-coil-mediated regulation, which enables designs for either inactivation or activation of selected protein functions, and implementation of two-input logic functions with rapid response in mammalian cells. The selection of insertion positions in tested proteins was facilitated by using a predictive machine learning model. We showcase the robustness of the INSRTR strategy on proteins with diverse folds and biological functions, including enzymes, signaling mediators, DNA binders, transcriptional regulators, reporters, and antibody domains implemented as chimeric antigen receptors in T cells. Our findings highlight the potential of INSRTR as a powerful tool for precise control of protein function, advancing our understanding of biological processes and developing biotechnological and therapeutic interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tjaša Plaper
- Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, SI-1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Estera Merljak
- Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, SI-1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Tina Fink
- Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, SI-1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Tadej Satler
- Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, SI-1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Interdisciplinary doctoral study of biomedicine, Medical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Ajasja Ljubetič
- Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, SI-1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Duško Lainšček
- Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, SI-1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Vid Jazbec
- Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, SI-1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Interdisciplinary doctoral study of biomedicine, Medical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Mojca Benčina
- Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, SI-1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Centre for Technologies of Gene and Cell Therapy, Hajdrihova 19, SI-1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Sintija Stevanoska
- Department of knowledge technologies, Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova cesta 39, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Sašo Džeroski
- Department of knowledge technologies, Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova cesta 39, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Roman Jerala
- Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, SI-1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
- Centre for Technologies of Gene and Cell Therapy, Hajdrihova 19, SI-1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
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8
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Lucchi R, Lucana MC, Escobar-Rosales M, Díaz-Perlas C, Oller-Salvia B. Site-specific antibody masking enables conditional activation with different stimuli. N Biotechnol 2023; 78:76-83. [PMID: 37820830 DOI: 10.1016/j.nbt.2023.10.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2023] [Revised: 09/17/2023] [Accepted: 10/07/2023] [Indexed: 10/13/2023]
Abstract
Antibody therapeutics show great potential to treat a variety of diseases. Often, the dose that can be safely administered is limited by side effects that arise from the interaction with the target outside the diseased tissue. Conditionally-active antibodies provide an additional layer of selectivity to improve safety. Distinct external stimuli or internal cues enable different control strategies and applications. However, current antibody masking strategies have low transferability across stimuli. Here we propose a versatile approach to conditionally mask antibody derivatives and its application to a single chain variable fragment (scFv) against a receptor expressed on cancer stem cells in several tumours. Our strategy relies on the site-specific conjugation of a polymer to an engineered cysteine residue through a chemically-synthesised linker that can be cleaved in response to the target stimulus. We show that the masking efficiency depends on the conjugation site and the size of the mask. An optimised mask decreases antigen binding by up to 20-fold and affinity can be fully recovered upon activation by exposure to light at 365 nm or by incubation with matrix metalloproteinases overexpressed in solid tumours. This approach opens up the possibility to rapidly engineer antibodies activatable with any internal or external stimulus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roberta Lucchi
- Department of Bioengineering, Institut Químic de Sarrià (IQS), Universitat Ramon Llull, Via Augusta 390, 08017 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Maria C Lucana
- Department of Bioengineering, Institut Químic de Sarrià (IQS), Universitat Ramon Llull, Via Augusta 390, 08017 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Montserrat Escobar-Rosales
- Department of Bioengineering, Institut Químic de Sarrià (IQS), Universitat Ramon Llull, Via Augusta 390, 08017 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Cristina Díaz-Perlas
- Department of Bioengineering, Institut Químic de Sarrià (IQS), Universitat Ramon Llull, Via Augusta 390, 08017 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Benjamí Oller-Salvia
- Department of Bioengineering, Institut Químic de Sarrià (IQS), Universitat Ramon Llull, Via Augusta 390, 08017 Barcelona, Spain.
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9
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Goudy OJ, Nallathambi A, Kinjo T, Randolph NZ, Kuhlman B. In silico evolution of autoinhibitory domains for a PD-L1 antagonist using deep learning models. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2307371120. [PMID: 38032933 PMCID: PMC10710080 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2307371120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2023] [Accepted: 09/24/2023] [Indexed: 12/02/2023] Open
Abstract
There has been considerable progress in the development of computational methods for designing protein-protein interactions, but engineering high-affinity binders without extensive screening and maturation remains challenging. Here, we test a protein design pipeline that uses iterative rounds of deep learning (DL)-based structure prediction (AlphaFold2) and sequence optimization (ProteinMPNN) to design autoinhibitory domains (AiDs) for a PD-L1 antagonist. With the goal of creating an anticancer agent that is inactive until reaching the tumor environment, we sought to create autoinhibited (or masked) forms of the PD-L1 antagonist that can be unmasked by tumor-enriched proteases. Twenty-three de novo designed AiDs, varying in length and topology, were fused to the antagonist with a protease-sensitive linker, and binding to PD-L1 was measured with and without protease treatment. Nine of the fusion proteins demonstrated conditional binding to PD-L1, and the top-performing AiDs were selected for further characterization as single-domain proteins. Without any experimental affinity maturation, four of the AiDs bind to the PD-L1 antagonist with equilibrium dissociation constants (KDs) below 150 nM, with the lowest KD equal to 0.9 nM. Our study demonstrates that DL-based protein modeling can be used to rapidly generate high-affinity protein binders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Odessa J. Goudy
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC27599
| | - Amrita Nallathambi
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC27599
| | - Tomoaki Kinjo
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC27599
| | - Nicholas Z. Randolph
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC27599
- Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC27599
| | - Brian Kuhlman
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC27599
- Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC27599
- Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC27599
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10
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Maejima A, Suzuki S, Makabe K, Kumagai I, Asano R. Incorporation of a repeated polypeptide sequence in therapeutic antibodies as a universal masking procedure: A case study of T cell-engaging bispecific antibodies. N Biotechnol 2023; 77:80-89. [PMID: 37467927 DOI: 10.1016/j.nbt.2023.07.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2023] [Revised: 06/06/2023] [Accepted: 07/16/2023] [Indexed: 07/21/2023]
Abstract
Prodrug design is a promising approach for reducing the off-target effects of therapeutic antibodies, particularly bispecific antibodies (bsAbs) that recruit T cells for activation; this design uses masking sequences that inhibit antibody binding until they reach the tumor microenvironment, where they are removed. In this study, we propose PAS, a polypeptide sequence composed of repeated Pro, Ala, and Ser residues, as a universal masking sequence. PAS has no specificity, but can inhibit antibody binding through steric hindrance caused by its large fluid dynamic radius and disordered structure; additionally, its length can be adjusted. We fused PAS to the N-terminus of an anti-CD3 single-chain variable fragment (scFv) and a bsAb, that targets both the epidermal growth factor receptor and CD3, via a recognition sequence cleaved by cancer-related proteases. PAS integration inhibited anti-CD3 scFv binding with higher efficacy than the epitope sequence, and the extent of inhibition was proportional to the length of the PAS sequence. For masked bsAbs, T cell-binding ability, cancer growth inhibition effects, and T cell activation effects were also reduced depending on the length of PAS and were fully restored upon removing PAS sequences using protease. The masking procedure using PAS was successfully applied to another scFv. The provision to adjust the masking effects of PAS by tuning its length, makes PAS fusion a valuable tool for the universal design of prodrug antibodies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Atsushi Maejima
- Department of Biotechnology and Life Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16 Naka-cho, Koganei, Tokyo 184-8588, Japan
| | - Saori Suzuki
- Department of Biotechnology and Life Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16 Naka-cho, Koganei, Tokyo 184-8588, Japan
| | - Koki Makabe
- Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Yamagata University, 4-3-16 Jonan, Yonezawa 992-8510, Japan
| | - Izumi Kumagai
- Department of Biotechnology and Life Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16 Naka-cho, Koganei, Tokyo 184-8588, Japan
| | - Ryutaro Asano
- Department of Biotechnology and Life Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16 Naka-cho, Koganei, Tokyo 184-8588, Japan; Institute of Global Innovation Research, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 3-8-1, Harumi-cho, Fuchu, Tokyo 183-8509, Japan.
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11
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Tang Q, Sun S, Wang P, Sun L, Wang Y, Zhang L, Xu M, Chen J, Wu R, Zhang J, Gong M, Chen Q, Liang X. Genetically Engineering Cell Membrane-Coated BTO Nanoparticles for MMP2-Activated Piezocatalysis-Immunotherapy. ADVANCED MATERIALS (DEERFIELD BEACH, FLA.) 2023; 35:e2300964. [PMID: 36809650 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202300964] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 23.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2023] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
Tumor immunotherapy based on immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) still suffers from low host response rate and non-specific distribution of immune checkpoint inhibitors, greatly compromising the therapeutic efficiency. Herein, cellular membrane stably expressing matrix metallopeptidase 2 (MMP2)-activated PD-L1 blockades is engineered to coat ultrasmall barium titanate (BTO) nanoparticle for overcoming the immunosuppressive microenvironment of tumors. The resulting M@BTO NPs can significantly promote the BTO's tumor accumulation, while the masking domains on membrane PD-L1 antibodies are cleaved when exposure to MMP2 highly expressed in tumor. With ultrasound (US) irradiation, M@BTO NPs can simultaneously generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) and O2 based on BTO mediated piezocatalysis and water splitting, significantly promoting the intratumoral infiltration of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and improving the PD-L1 blockade therapy to the tumor, resulting in effective tumor growth inhibition and lung metastasis suppression in a melanoma mouse model. This nanoplatform combines MMP2-activated genetic editing cell membrane with US responsive BTO for both immune stimulation and specific PD-L1 inhibition, providing a safe and robust strategy in enhancing immune response against tumor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qingshuang Tang
- Department of Ultrasound, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100191, China
| | - Suhui Sun
- Department of Ultrasound, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100191, China
| | - Ping Wang
- Department of Ultrasound, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100191, China
| | - Lihong Sun
- Department of Ultrasound, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100191, China
| | - Yuan Wang
- Department of Ultrasound, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100191, China
| | - Lulu Zhang
- Department of Ultrasound, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100191, China
| | - Menghong Xu
- Department of Ultrasound, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100191, China
| | - Jing Chen
- Department of Ultrasound, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100191, China
| | - Ruiqi Wu
- Department of Ultrasound, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100191, China
| | - Jinxia Zhang
- Department of Ultrasound, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100191, China
| | - Ming Gong
- Department of Ultrasound, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100191, China
| | - Qingfeng Chen
- Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore, 138673, Singapore
| | - Xiaolong Liang
- Department of Ultrasound, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100191, China
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12
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Mestre Borras A, Dahlsson Leitao C, Ståhl S, Löfblom J. Generation of an anti-idiotypic affibody-based masking domain for conditional activation of EGFR-targeting. N Biotechnol 2023; 73:9-18. [PMID: 36526248 DOI: 10.1016/j.nbt.2022.12.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2022] [Revised: 12/07/2022] [Accepted: 12/12/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Conditional activation of engineered affinity proteins by proteolytic processing is an interesting approach for a wide range of applications. We have generated an anti-idiotypic masking domain with specificity for the binding surface of an EGFR-targeting affibody molecule using an in-house developed staphylococcal display method. The masking domain could specifically abrogate EGFR-binding on cancer cells when fused to the EGFR-targeting affibody molecule via a linker comprising a protease cleavage site. EGFR-binding was restored by proteolytic cleavage of the linker region resulting in release of the masking domain. A saturation mutagenesis study provided detailed information on the interaction between the EGFR-targeting affibody molecule and the masking domain. Introducing an anti-idiotypic masking affibody domain is a viable approach for blocking EGFR-binding and allows for conditional activation by proteolytic processing. The results warrant further studies evaluating the therapeutic and diagnostic applicability both in vitro and in vivo.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Mestre Borras
- Department of Protein Science, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Charles Dahlsson Leitao
- Department of Protein Science, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Stefan Ståhl
- Department of Protein Science, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - John Löfblom
- Department of Protein Science, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
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13
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Rosenkranz AA, Slastnikova TA. Prospects of Using Protein Engineering for Selective Drug Delivery into a Specific Compartment of Target Cells. Pharmaceutics 2023; 15:pharmaceutics15030987. [PMID: 36986848 PMCID: PMC10055131 DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics15030987] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2023] [Revised: 03/13/2023] [Accepted: 03/17/2023] [Indexed: 03/30/2023] Open
Abstract
A large number of proteins are successfully used to treat various diseases. These include natural polypeptide hormones, their synthetic analogues, antibodies, antibody mimetics, enzymes, and other drugs based on them. Many of them are demanded in clinical settings and commercially successful, mainly for cancer treatment. The targets for most of the aforementioned drugs are located at the cell surface. Meanwhile, the vast majority of therapeutic targets, which are usually regulatory macromolecules, are located inside the cell. Traditional low molecular weight drugs freely penetrate all cells, causing side effects in non-target cells. In addition, it is often difficult to elaborate a small molecule that can specifically affect protein interactions. Modern technologies make it possible to obtain proteins capable of interacting with almost any target. However, proteins, like other macromolecules, cannot, as a rule, freely penetrate into the desired cellular compartment. Recent studies allow us to design multifunctional proteins that solve these problems. This review considers the scope of application of such artificial constructs for the targeted delivery of both protein-based and traditional low molecular weight drugs, the obstacles met on the way of their transport to the specified intracellular compartment of the target cells after their systemic bloodstream administration, and the means to overcome those difficulties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrey A Rosenkranz
- Laboratory of Molecular Genetics of Intracellular Transport, Institute of Gene Biology of Russian Academy of Sciences, 34/5 Vavilov St., 119334 Moscow, Russia
- Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1-12 Leninskie Gory St., 119234 Moscow, Russia
| | - Tatiana A Slastnikova
- Laboratory of Molecular Genetics of Intracellular Transport, Institute of Gene Biology of Russian Academy of Sciences, 34/5 Vavilov St., 119334 Moscow, Russia
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14
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Woolfson DN. Understanding a protein fold: the physics, chemistry, and biology of α-helical coiled coils. J Biol Chem 2023; 299:104579. [PMID: 36871758 PMCID: PMC10124910 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbc.2023.104579] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 20.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2023] [Revised: 02/25/2023] [Accepted: 02/27/2023] [Indexed: 03/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Protein science is being transformed by powerful computational methods for structure prediction and design: AlphaFold2 can predict many natural protein structures from sequence, and other AI methods are enabling the de novo design of new structures. This raises a question: how much do we understand the underlying sequence-to-structure/function relationships being captured by these methods? This perspective presents our current understanding of one class of protein assembly, the α-helical coiled coils. At first sight, these are straightforward: sequence repeats of hydrophobic (h) and polar (p) residues, (hpphppp)n, direct the folding and assembly of amphipathic α helices into bundles. However, many different bundles are possible: they can have two or more helices (different oligomers); the helices can have parallel, antiparallel or mixed arrangements (different topologies); and the helical sequences can be the same (homomers) or different (heteromers). Thus, sequence-to-structure relationships must be present within the hpphppp repeats to distinguish these states. I discuss the current understanding of this problem at three levels: First, physics gives a parametric framework to generate the many possible coiled-coil backbone structures. Second, chemistry provides a means to explore and deliver sequence-to-structure relationships. Third, biology shows how coiled coils are adapted and functionalized in nature, inspiring applications of coiled coils in synthetic biology. I argue that the chemistry is largely understood; the physics is partly solved, though the considerable challenge of predicting even relative stabilities of different coiled-coil states remains; but there is much more to explore in the biology and synthetic biology of coiled coils.
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Affiliation(s)
- Derek N Woolfson
- School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom; School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol, Medical Sciences Building, University Walk, Bristol, United Kingdom; BrisEngBio, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom; Max Planck-Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom.
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15
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Sun B, Liu Z, Liu J, Zhao S, Wang L, Wang F. The utility of proteases in proteomics, from sequence profiling to structure and function analysis. Proteomics 2023; 23:e2200132. [PMID: 36382392 DOI: 10.1002/pmic.202200132] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2022] [Revised: 11/08/2022] [Accepted: 11/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
In mass spectrometry (MS)-based bottom-up proteomics, protease digestion plays an essential role in profiling both proteome sequences and post-translational modifications (PTMs). Trypsin is the gold standard in digesting intact proteins into small-size peptides, which are more suitable for high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) separation and tandem MS (MS/MS) characterization. However, protein sequences lacking Lys and Arg cannot be cleaved by trypsin and may be missed in conventional proteomic analysis. Proteases with cleavage sites complementary to trypsin are widely applied in proteomic analysis to greatly improve the coverage of proteome sequences and PTM sites. In this review, we survey the common and newly emerging proteases used in proteomics analysis mainly in the last 5 years, focusing on their unique cleavage features and specific proteomics applications such as missing protein characterization, new PTM discovery, and de novo sequencing. In addition, we summarize the applications of proteases in structural proteomics and protein function analysis in recent years. Finally, we discuss the future development directions of new proteases and applications in proteomics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Binwen Sun
- Engineering Research Center for New Materials and Precision Treatment Technology of Malignant Tumors Therapy, Second Affiliated Hospital, Dalian Medical University, 467 Zhongshan Road, Dalian, 116027, China
- CAS Key Laboratory of Separation Sciences for Analytical Chemistry, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 463 Zhongshan Road, Dalian, 116023, China
- Engineering Technology Research Center for Translational Medicine, Second Affiliated Hospital, Dalian Medical University, 467 Zhongshan Road, Dalian, 116027, China
| | - Zheyi Liu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Separation Sciences for Analytical Chemistry, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 463 Zhongshan Road, Dalian, 116023, China
| | - Jin Liu
- Engineering Research Center for New Materials and Precision Treatment Technology of Malignant Tumors Therapy, Second Affiliated Hospital, Dalian Medical University, 467 Zhongshan Road, Dalian, 116027, China
- Engineering Technology Research Center for Translational Medicine, Second Affiliated Hospital, Dalian Medical University, 467 Zhongshan Road, Dalian, 116027, China
- Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Department of General Surgery, Second Affiliated Hospital, Dalian Medical University, 467 Zhongshan Road, Dalian, 116027, China
| | - Shan Zhao
- CAS Key Laboratory of Separation Sciences for Analytical Chemistry, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 463 Zhongshan Road, Dalian, 116023, China
| | - Liming Wang
- Engineering Research Center for New Materials and Precision Treatment Technology of Malignant Tumors Therapy, Second Affiliated Hospital, Dalian Medical University, 467 Zhongshan Road, Dalian, 116027, China
- Engineering Technology Research Center for Translational Medicine, Second Affiliated Hospital, Dalian Medical University, 467 Zhongshan Road, Dalian, 116027, China
- Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Department of General Surgery, Second Affiliated Hospital, Dalian Medical University, 467 Zhongshan Road, Dalian, 116027, China
| | - Fangjun Wang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Separation Sciences for Analytical Chemistry, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 463 Zhongshan Road, Dalian, 116023, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Yuquan Road, Beijing, 100049, China
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16
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Goudy OJ, Peng A, Tripathy A, Kuhlman B. Design of a protease-activated PD-L1 inhibitor. Protein Sci 2023; 32:e4578. [PMID: 36705186 PMCID: PMC9926466 DOI: 10.1002/pro.4578] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2022] [Revised: 01/18/2023] [Accepted: 01/25/2023] [Indexed: 01/28/2023]
Abstract
Immune checkpoint inhibitors that bind to the cell surface receptor PD-L1 are effective anti-cancer agents but suffer from immune-related adverse events as PD-L1 is expressed on both healthy and cancer cells. To mitigate toxicity, researchers are testing prodrugs that have low affinity for checkpoint targets until activated with proteases enriched in the tumor microenvironment. Here, we engineer a prodrug form of a PD-L1 inhibitor. The inhibitor is a soluble PD-1 mimetic that was previously engineered to have high affinity for PD-L1. In the basal state, the binding surface of the PD-1 mimetic is masked by fusing it to a soluble variant of its natural ligand, PD-L1. Proteolytic cleavage of the linker that connects the mask to the inhibitor activates the molecule. To optimize the mask so that it effectively blocks binding to PD-L1 but releases upon cleavage, we tested a set of mutants with varied affinity for the inhibitor. The top-performing mask reduces the affinity of the prodrug for PD-L1 120-fold, and binding is nearly fully recovered upon cleavage. In a cell-based assay measuring inhibition of the PD-1:PD-L1 interaction on the surface of cells, the IC50s of the masked inhibitors were up to 40-fold higher than their protease-treated counterparts. The changes in activity we observe upon protease treatment are comparable to systems currently tested in the clinic and provide evidence that natural binding partners are an excellent starting point for creating a prodrug.
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Affiliation(s)
- Odessa J. Goudy
- Department of Biochemistry and BiophysicsUniversity of North Carolina School of MedicineChapel HillNorth CarolinaUSA
| | - Alice Peng
- Department of Biochemistry and BiophysicsUniversity of North Carolina School of MedicineChapel HillNorth CarolinaUSA
| | - Ashutosh Tripathy
- Department of Biochemistry and BiophysicsUniversity of North Carolina School of MedicineChapel HillNorth CarolinaUSA
| | - Brian Kuhlman
- Department of Biochemistry and BiophysicsUniversity of North Carolina School of MedicineChapel HillNorth CarolinaUSA
- Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer CenterUniversity of North CarolinaChapel HillNorth CarolinaUSA
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17
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Aung T, Grubbe WS, Nusbaum RJ, Mendoza JL. Recent and future perspectives on engineering interferons and other cytokines as therapeutics. Trends Biochem Sci 2023; 48:259-273. [PMID: 36241490 PMCID: PMC9974544 DOI: 10.1016/j.tibs.2022.09.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2022] [Revised: 09/13/2022] [Accepted: 09/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
As crucial mediators and regulators of our immune system, cytokines are involved in a broad range of biological processes and are implicated in various disease pathologies. The field of cytokine therapeutics has gained much momentum from the maturation of conventional protein engineering methodologies such as structure-based designs and/or directed evolution, which is further aided by the advent of in silico protein designs and characterization. Just within the past 5 years, there has been an explosion of proof-of-concept, preclinical, and clinical studies that utilize an armory of protein engineering methods to develop cytokine-based drugs. Here, we highlight the key engineering strategies undertaken by recent studies that aim to improve the pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic profile of interferons and other cytokines as therapeutics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Theint Aung
- Department of Chemistry, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - William S Grubbe
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Rebecca J Nusbaum
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Juan L Mendoza
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
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18
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Nadendla K, Simpson GG, Becher J, Journeaux T, Cabeza-Cabrerizo M, Bernardes GJL. Strategies for Conditional Regulation of Proteins. JACS AU 2023; 3:344-357. [PMID: 36873677 PMCID: PMC9975842 DOI: 10.1021/jacsau.2c00654] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2022] [Revised: 01/09/2023] [Accepted: 01/10/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Design of the next-generation of therapeutics, biosensors, and molecular tools for basic research requires that we bring protein activity under control. Each protein has unique properties, and therefore, it is critical to tailor the current techniques to develop new regulatory methods and regulate new proteins of interest (POIs). This perspective gives an overview of the widely used stimuli and synthetic and natural methods for conditional regulation of proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karthik Nadendla
- Yusuf
Hamied Department of Chemistry, University
of Cambridge, CB2 1EW, Cambridge, U.K.
| | - Grant G. Simpson
- Yusuf
Hamied Department of Chemistry, University
of Cambridge, CB2 1EW, Cambridge, U.K.
| | - Julie Becher
- Yusuf
Hamied Department of Chemistry, University
of Cambridge, CB2 1EW, Cambridge, U.K.
| | - Toby Journeaux
- Yusuf
Hamied Department of Chemistry, University
of Cambridge, CB2 1EW, Cambridge, U.K.
| | - Mar Cabeza-Cabrerizo
- Yusuf
Hamied Department of Chemistry, University
of Cambridge, CB2 1EW, Cambridge, U.K.
| | - Gonçalo J. L. Bernardes
- Yusuf
Hamied Department of Chemistry, University
of Cambridge, CB2 1EW, Cambridge, U.K.
- Instituto
de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, 1649-028 Lisboa, Portugal
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19
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Baniahmad SF, Oliverio R, Obregon-Gomez I, Robert A, Lenferink AEG, Pazos E, Virgilio N, Banquy X, De Crescenzo G, Durocher Y. Affinity-controlled capture and release of engineered monoclonal antibodies by macroporous dextran hydrogels using coiled-coil interactions. MAbs 2023; 15:2218951. [PMID: 37300397 DOI: 10.1080/19420862.2023.2218951] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2023] [Revised: 05/23/2023] [Accepted: 05/24/2023] [Indexed: 06/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Long-term delivery is a successful strategy used to reduce the adverse effects of monoclonal antibody (mAb)-based treatments. Macroporous hydrogels and affinity-based strategies have shown promising results in sustained and localized delivery of the mAbs. Among the potential tools for affinity-based delivery systems, the de novo designed Ecoil and Kcoil peptides are engineered to form a high-affinity, heterodimeric coiled-coil complex under physiological conditions. In this study, we created a set of trastuzumab molecules tagged with various Ecoil peptides and evaluated their manufacturability and characteristics. Our data show that addition of an Ecoil tag at the C-termini of the antibody chains (light chains, heavy chains, or both) does not hinder the production of chimeric trastuzumab in CHO cells or affect antibody binding to its antigen. We also evaluated the influence of the number, length, and position of the Ecoil tags on the capture and release of Ecoil-tagged trastuzumab from macroporous dextran hydrogels functionalized with Kcoil peptide (the Ecoil peptide-binding partner). Notably, our data show that antibodies are released from the macroporous hydrogels in a biphasic manner; the first phase corresponding to the rapid release of residual, unbound trastuzumab from the macropores, followed by the affinity-controlled, slow-rate release of antibodies from the Kcoil-functionalized macropore surface.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seyed Farzad Baniahmad
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada
- Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre, Building Montreal-Royalmount, National Research Council Canada, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Romane Oliverio
- Department of Chemical Engineering Polytechnique Montréal, Montréal, Québec Canada
- Faculty of Pharmacy, Axe Formulation Et Analyse du Médicament, Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Ines Obregon-Gomez
- CICA - Centro Interdisciplinar de Química E Bioloxía and Departamento de Química, Facultade de Ciencias, Universidade da Coruna, Coruna, Spain
| | - Alma Robert
- Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre, Building Montreal-Royalmount, National Research Council Canada, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Anne E G Lenferink
- Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre, Building Montreal-Royalmount, National Research Council Canada, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Elena Pazos
- CICA - Centro Interdisciplinar de Química E Bioloxía and Departamento de Química, Facultade de Ciencias, Universidade da Coruna, Coruna, Spain
| | - Nick Virgilio
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Centre de Recherche Sur Les Systèmes Polymères Et Composites à Haute Performance (CREPEC), Montréal, Canada
| | - Xavier Banquy
- Faculty of Pharmacy, Axe Formulation Et Analyse du Médicament, Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Gregory De Crescenzo
- Department of Chemical Engineering Polytechnique Montréal, Montréal, Québec Canada
| | - Yves Durocher
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada
- Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre, Building Montreal-Royalmount, National Research Council Canada, Montréal, Québec, Canada
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20
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Brasino M, Wagnell E, Hamilton S, Ranganathan S, Gomes MM, Branchaud B, Messmer B, Ibsen SD. Turning antibodies off and on again using a covalently tethered blocking peptide. Commun Biol 2022; 5:1357. [PMID: 36496512 PMCID: PMC9741643 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-04094-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2022] [Accepted: 10/11/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In their natural form, antibodies are always in an "on-state" and are capable of binding to their targets. This leads to undesirable interactions in a wide range of therapeutic, analytical, and synthetic applications. Modulating binding kinetics of antibodies to turn them from an "off-state" to an "on-state" with temporal and spatial control can address this. Here we demonstrate a method to modulate binding activity of antibodies in a predictable and reproducible way. We designed a blocking construct that uses both covalent and non-covalent interactions with the antibody. The construct consisted of a Protein L protein attached to a flexible linker ending in a blocking-peptide designed to interact with the antibody binding site. A mutant Protein L was developed to enable photo-triggered covalent crosslinking to the antibody at a specific location. The covalent bond anchored the linker and blocking peptide to the antibody light chain keeping the blocking peptide close to the antibody binding site. This effectively put the antibody into an "off-state". We demonstrate that protease-cleavable and photocleavable moieties in the tether enable controlled antibody activation to the "on-state" for anti-FLAG and cetuximab antibodies. Protein L can bind a range of antibodies used therapeutically and in research for wide applicability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Brasino
- grid.5288.70000 0000 9758 5690Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center, Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR 97201 USA
| | - Eli Wagnell
- grid.5288.70000 0000 9758 5690Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center, Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR 97201 USA
| | - Sean Hamilton
- grid.5288.70000 0000 9758 5690Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center, Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR 97201 USA ,grid.5288.70000 0000 9758 5690Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR 97201 USA
| | - Srivathsan Ranganathan
- grid.5288.70000 0000 9758 5690Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center, Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR 97201 USA
| | - Michelle M. Gomes
- grid.5288.70000 0000 9758 5690Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center, Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR 97201 USA
| | - Bruce Branchaud
- grid.5288.70000 0000 9758 5690Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center, Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR 97201 USA
| | | | - Stuart D. Ibsen
- grid.5288.70000 0000 9758 5690Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center, Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR 97201 USA ,grid.5288.70000 0000 9758 5690Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR 97201 USA
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21
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Liu Y, Nguyen AW, Maynard JA. Engineering antibodies for conditional activity in the solid tumor microenvironment. Curr Opin Biotechnol 2022; 78:102809. [PMID: 36182870 DOI: 10.1016/j.copbio.2022.102809] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2022] [Revised: 08/25/2022] [Accepted: 08/30/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Antibody-based therapeutics enjoy considerable clinical and commercial successes as cancer treatments. However, they can also cause serious toxicities due to recognition of tumor-associated antigens in noncancerous tissues, which can prevent antibody use in certain patient populations and therapeutic modalities. Here, we discuss recent efforts to develop advanced antibody therapeutics with activities restricted to the solid tumor microenvironment. With the intent of decreasing toxicities and expanding therapeutic windows, protein engineering strategies can render ligand binding sensitive to multiple tumor-specific characteristics. These triggers can be intrinsic to solid tumor microenvironments, such as low pH, high extracellular ATP, and the presence of specific proteases. Emerging strategies rely instead on exogenous triggers such as light and ultrasound to provide spatial and temporal control over antibody activation. These multilayered approaches to targeting diseased tissues are expected to usher in a new generation of precision therapeutics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yutong Liu
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA
| | - Annalee W Nguyen
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
| | - Jennifer A Maynard
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
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22
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Wei J, Yang Y, Wang G, Liu M. Current landscape and future directions of bispecific antibodies in cancer immunotherapy. Front Immunol 2022; 13:1035276. [PMID: 36389699 PMCID: PMC9650279 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.1035276] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2022] [Accepted: 10/14/2022] [Indexed: 07/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent advances in cancer immunotherapy using monoclonal antibodies have dramatically revolutionized the therapeutic strategy against advanced malignancies, inspiring the exploration of various types of therapeutic antibodies. Bispecific antibodies (BsAbs) are recombinant molecules containing two different antigens or epitopes identifying binding domains. Bispecific antibody-based tumor immunotherapy has gained broad potential in preclinical and clinical investigations in a variety of tumor types following regulatory approval of newly developed technologies involving bispecific and multispecific antibodies. Meanwhile, a series of challenges such as antibody immunogenicity, tumor heterogeneity, low response rate, treatment resistance, and systemic adverse effects hinder the application of BsAbs. In this review, we provide insights into the various architecture of BsAbs, focus on BsAbs' alternative different mechanisms of action and clinical progression, and discuss relevant approaches to overcome existing challenges in BsAbs clinical application.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jing Wei
- Gastric Cancer Center/Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Yueyao Yang
- National Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Gang Wang
- National Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Ming Liu
- Gastric Cancer Center/Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
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23
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Lou H, Cao X. Antibody variable region engineering for improving cancer immunotherapy. Cancer Commun (Lond) 2022; 42:804-827. [PMID: 35822503 PMCID: PMC9456695 DOI: 10.1002/cac2.12330] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2022] [Revised: 04/25/2022] [Accepted: 06/22/2022] [Indexed: 04/09/2023] Open
Abstract
The efficacy and specificity of conventional monoclonal antibody (mAb) drugs in the clinic require further improvement. Currently, the development and application of novel antibody formats for improving cancer immunotherapy have attracted much attention. Variable region-retaining antibody fragments, such as antigen-binding fragment (Fab), single-chain variable fragment (scFv), bispecific antibody, and bi/trispecific cell engagers, are engineered with humanization, multivalent antibody construction, affinity optimization and antibody masking for targeting tumor cells and killer cells to improve antibody-based therapy potency, efficacy and specificity. In this review, we summarize the application of antibody variable region engineering and discuss the future direction of antibody engineering for improving cancer therapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hantao Lou
- Ludwig Institute of Cancer ResearchUniversity of OxfordOxfordOX3 7DRUK
- Chinese Academy for Medical Sciences Oxford InstituteNuffield Department of MedicineUniversity of OxfordOxfordOX3 7FZUK
| | - Xuetao Cao
- Chinese Academy for Medical Sciences Oxford InstituteNuffield Department of MedicineUniversity of OxfordOxfordOX3 7FZUK
- Department of ImmunologyCentre for Immunotherapy, Institute of Basic Medical SciencesChinese Academy of Medical SciencesBeijing100005P. R. China
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24
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Soleimany AP, Martin-Alonso C, Anahtar M, Wang CS, Bhatia SN. Protease Activity Analysis: A Toolkit for Analyzing Enzyme Activity Data. ACS OMEGA 2022; 7:24292-24301. [PMID: 35874224 PMCID: PMC9301967 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.2c01559] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Analyzing the activity of proteases and their substrates is critical to defining the biological functions of these enzymes and to designing new diagnostics and therapeutics that target protease dysregulation in disease. While a wide range of databases and algorithms have been created to better predict protease cleavage sites, there is a dearth of computational tools to automate analysis of in vitro and in vivo protease assays. This necessitates individual researchers to develop their own analytical pipelines, resulting in a lack of standardization across the field. To facilitate protease research, here we present Protease Activity Analysis (PAA), a toolkit for the preprocessing, visualization, machine learning analysis, and querying of protease activity data sets. PAA leverages a Python-based object-oriented implementation that provides a modular framework for streamlined analysis across three major components. First, PAA provides a facile framework to query data sets of synthetic peptide substrates and their cleavage susceptibilities across a diverse set of proteases. To complement the database functionality, PAA also includes tools for the automated analysis and visualization of user-input enzyme-substrate activity measurements generated through in vitro screens against synthetic peptide substrates. Finally, PAA supports a set of modular machine learning functions to analyze in vivo protease activity signatures that are generated by activity-based sensors. Overall, PAA offers the protease community a breadth of computational tools to streamline research, taking a step toward standardizing data analysis across the field and in chemical biology and biochemistry at large.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ava P. Soleimany
- Harvard-MIT
Division of Health Sciences and Technology, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
- Program
in Biophysics, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
- Microsoft
Research New England, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, United States
| | - Carmen Martin-Alonso
- Harvard-MIT
Division of Health Sciences and Technology, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Melodi Anahtar
- Harvard-MIT
Division of Health Sciences and Technology, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Cathy S. Wang
- Department
of Biological Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Sangeeta N. Bhatia
- Harvard-MIT
Division of Health Sciences and Technology, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
- Department
of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
- Howard Hughes
Medical Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
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25
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Mansurov A, Hosseinchi P, Chang K, Lauterbach AL, Gray LT, Alpar AT, Budina E, Slezak AJ, Kang S, Cao S, Solanki A, Gomes S, Williford JM, Swartz MA, Mendoza JL, Ishihara J, Hubbell JA. Masking the immunotoxicity of interleukin-12 by fusing it with a domain of its receptor via a tumour-protease-cleavable linker. Nat Biomed Eng 2022; 6:819-829. [PMID: 35534574 DOI: 10.1038/s41551-022-00888-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2021] [Accepted: 03/29/2022] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
Immune-checkpoint inhibitors have shown modest efficacy against immunologically 'cold' tumours. Interleukin-12 (IL-12)-a cytokine that promotes the recruitment of immune cells into tumours as well as immune cell activation, also in cold tumours-can cause severe immune-related adverse events in patients. Here, by exploiting the preferential overexpression of proteases in tumours, we show that fusing a domain of the IL-12 receptor to IL-12 via a linker cleavable by tumour-associated proteases largely restricts the pro-inflammatory effects of IL-12 to tumour sites. In mouse models of subcutaneous adenocarcinoma and orthotopic melanoma, masked IL-12 delivered intravenously did not cause systemic IL-12 signalling and eliminated systemic immune-related adverse events, led to potent therapeutic effects via the remodelling of the immune-suppressive microenvironment, and rendered cold tumours responsive to immune-checkpoint inhibition. We also show that masked IL-12 is activated in tumour lysates from patients. Protease-sensitive masking of potent yet toxic cytokines may facilitate their clinical translation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aslan Mansurov
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Peyman Hosseinchi
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Kevin Chang
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Abigail L Lauterbach
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Laura T Gray
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Aaron T Alpar
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Erica Budina
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Anna J Slezak
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Seounghun Kang
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Shijie Cao
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Ani Solanki
- Animal Resource Center, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Suzana Gomes
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | | | - Melody A Swartz
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- Ben May Department for Cancer Research, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- Committee on Immunology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- Committee on Cancer Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Juan L Mendoza
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Jun Ishihara
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
- Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK.
| | - Jeffrey A Hubbell
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
- Committee on Immunology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
- Committee on Cancer Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
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26
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Exploiting protease activation for therapy. Drug Discov Today 2022; 27:1743-1754. [PMID: 35314338 PMCID: PMC9132161 DOI: 10.1016/j.drudis.2022.03.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2021] [Revised: 01/14/2022] [Accepted: 03/15/2022] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
Proteases have crucial roles in homeostasis and disease; and protease inhibitors and recombinant proteases in enzyme replacement therapy have become key therapeutic applications of protease biology across several indications. This review briefly summarises therapeutic approaches based on protease activation and focuses on how recent insights into the spatial and temporal control of the proteolytic activation of growth factors and interleukins are leading to unique strategies for the discovery of new medicines. In particular, two emerging areas are covered: the first is based on antibody therapies that target the process of proteolytic activation of the pro-form of proteins rather than their mature form; the second covers a potentially new class of biopharmaceuticals using engineered, proteolytically activable and initially inactive pro-forms of antibodies or effector proteins to increase specificity and improve the therapeutic window.
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27
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Yao S, Moyer A, Zheng Y, Shen Y, Meng X, Yuan C, Zhao Y, Yao H, Baker D, Wu C. De novo design and directed folding of disulfide-bridged peptide heterodimers. Nat Commun 2022; 13:1539. [PMID: 35318337 PMCID: PMC8941120 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29210-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2021] [Accepted: 03/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Peptide heterodimers are prevalent in nature, which are not only functional macromolecules but molecular tools for chemical and synthetic biology. Computational methods have also been developed to design heterodimers of advanced functions. However, these peptide heterodimers are usually formed through noncovalent interactions, which are prone to dissociate and subject to concentration-dependent nonspecific aggregation. Heterodimers crosslinked with interchain disulfide bonds are more stable, but it represents a formidable challenge for both the computational design of heterodimers and the manipulation of disulfide pairing for heterodimer synthesis and applications. Here, we report the design, synthesis and application of interchain disulfide-bridged peptide heterodimers with mutual orthogonality by combining computational de novo designs with a directed disulfide pairing strategy. These heterodimers can be used as not only scaffolds for generating functional molecules but chemical tools or building blocks for protein labeling and construction of crosslinking hybrids. This study thus opens the door for using this unexplored dimeric structure space for many biological applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sicong Yao
- Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, The MOE Key Laboratory of Spectrochemical Analysis and Instrumentation, State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, P.R. China
| | - Adam Moyer
- Department of Biochemistry and Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA
| | - Yiwu Zheng
- Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, The MOE Key Laboratory of Spectrochemical Analysis and Instrumentation, State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, P.R. China
| | - Yang Shen
- Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, The MOE Key Laboratory of Spectrochemical Analysis and Instrumentation, State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, P.R. China
| | - Xiaoting Meng
- Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, The MOE Key Laboratory of Spectrochemical Analysis and Instrumentation, State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, P.R. China
| | - Chong Yuan
- Institute of Molecular Enzymology, School of Biology and Basic Medical Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, P.R. China
| | - Yibing Zhao
- Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, The MOE Key Laboratory of Spectrochemical Analysis and Instrumentation, State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, P.R. China
| | - Hongwei Yao
- Institute of Molecular Enzymology, School of Biology and Basic Medical Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, P.R. China.
| | - David Baker
- Department of Biochemistry and Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA.
| | - Chuanliu Wu
- Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, The MOE Key Laboratory of Spectrochemical Analysis and Instrumentation, State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, P.R. China.
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28
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Boghaert ER, Cox MC, Vaidya KS. Pathophysiological and pharmacological considerations to improve the design and application of antibody-drug conjugates. Cancer Res 2022; 82:1858-1869. [PMID: 35298624 DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.can-21-3236] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2021] [Revised: 03/01/2022] [Accepted: 03/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) have emerged as one of the pillars of clinical disease management in oncology. The biggest hurdle to widespread development and application of ADCs has been a narrow therapeutic index. Advances in antibody technologies and formats as well as novel linker and payload chemistries have begun to facilitate structural improvements to ADCs. However, the interplay of structural characteristics with physiologic and pharmacologic factors determining therapeutic success has garnered less attention. This review elaborates on the pharmacology of ADCs, the pathophysiology of cancerous tissues, and the reciprocal consequences on ADC properties and functions. While most currently approved ADCs utilize either microtubule inhibition or DNA damage as primary mechanisms of action, we present arguments to expand this repertoire and highlight the need for payload mechanisms that exploit disease-specific vulnerabilities. We promote the idea that the choice of antibody format, targeting antigen, linker properties, and payload of an ADC should be deliberately fit for purpose by taking the pathophysiology of disease and the specific pharmacology of the drug entity into account, thus allowing a higher probability of clinical success.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Megan C Cox
- Abbvie, Inc., North Chicago, IL, United States
| | - Kedar S Vaidya
- Jazz Pharmaceuticals (United States), Palo Alto, CA, United States
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29
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Lu Y, Chen J, Li L, Cao Y, Zhao Y, Nie X, Ding C. Hierarchical functional nanoparticles boost osteoarthritis therapy by utilizing joint-resident mesenchymal stem cells. J Nanobiotechnology 2022; 20:89. [PMID: 35183192 PMCID: PMC8858465 DOI: 10.1186/s12951-022-01297-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2021] [Accepted: 02/02/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Utilization of joint-resident mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) to repair articular cartilage is a promising strategy in osteoarthritis (OA) therapy but remains a considerable research challenge. Here, hierarchical targeting and microenvironment responsive peptide functionalized nanoparticles (NPs) are used to achieve cartilage repair in situ. Ultrasmall copper oxide (CuO) NPs are conjugated with type 2 collagen and MSC dual-targeting peptide (designated WPV) with a matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2)-sensitive sequence as a spacer to achieve hierarchical targeting. Guided by this peptide, WPV-CuO NPs initially penetrate cartilage and subsequently expose the inner MSC-targeted peptide to attract MSCs through MMP-2 clearance. CuO further promotes chondrogenesis of MSCs. In an anterior cruciate ligament transection rat model, intraarticular injection of WPV-CuO NPs induces significant reduction of cartilage destruction. The therapeutic mechanism involves inhibition of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, as determined via transcriptome analysis. In conclusion, a novel therapeutic strategy for OA has been successfully developed based on localized MSC recruitment and cartilage repair without transplantation of exogenous cells or growth factors.
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30
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Dickopf S, Buldun C, Vasic V, Georges G, Hage C, Mayer K, Forster M, Wessels U, Stubenrauch KG, Benz J, Ehler A, Lauer ME, Ringler P, Kobold S, Endres S, Klein C, Brinkmann U. Prodrug-Activating Chain Exchange (PACE) converts targeted prodrug derivatives to functional bi- or multispecific antibodies. Biol Chem 2022; 403:495-508. [PMID: 35073465 PMCID: PMC9125802 DOI: 10.1515/hsz-2021-0401] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2021] [Accepted: 12/23/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Driven by the potential to broaden the target space of conventional monospecific antibodies, the field of multi-specific antibody derivatives is growing rapidly. The production and screening of these artificial proteins entails a high combinatorial complexity. Antibody-domain exchange was previously shown to be a versatile strategy to produce bispecific antibodies in a robust and efficient manner. Here, we show that the domain exchange reaction to generate hybrid antibodies also functions under physiological conditions. Accordingly, we modified the exchange partners for use in therapeutic applications, in which two inactive prodrugs convert into a product with additional functionalities. We exemplarily show the feasibility for generating active T cell bispecific antibodies from two inactive prodrugs, which per se do not activate T cells alone. The two complementary prodrugs harbor antigen-targeting Fabs and non-functional anti-CD3 Fvs fused to IgG-CH3 domains engineered to drive chain-exchange reactions between them. Importantly, Prodrug-Activating Chain Exchange (PACE) could be an attractive option to conditionally activate therapeutics at the target site. Several examples are provided that demonstrate the efficacy of PACE as a new principle of cancer immunotherapy in vitro and in a human xenograft model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steffen Dickopf
- Large Molecule Research (LMR), Roche Innovation Center Munich , Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) , Penzberg , Germany
| | - Can Buldun
- Large Molecule Research (LMR), Roche Innovation Center Munich , Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) , Penzberg , Germany
| | - Vedran Vasic
- Large Molecule Research (LMR), Roche Innovation Center Munich , Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) , Penzberg , Germany
| | - Guy Georges
- Large Molecule Research (LMR), Roche Innovation Center Munich , Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) , Penzberg , Germany
| | - Carina Hage
- Discovery Oncology, Roche Innovation Center Munich , Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) , Penzberg , Germany
| | - Klaus Mayer
- Large Molecule Research (LMR), Roche Innovation Center Munich , Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) , Penzberg , Germany
| | - Matthias Forster
- Large Molecule Research (LMR), Roche Innovation Center Munich , Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) , Penzberg , Germany
| | - Uwe Wessels
- Pharmaceutical Sciences (PS), Roche Innovation Center Munich , Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) , Penzberg , Germany
| | - Kay-Gunnar Stubenrauch
- Pharmaceutical Sciences (PS), Roche Innovation Center Munich , Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) , Penzberg , Germany
| | - Jörg Benz
- Small Molecule Research, Roche Innovation Center Basel , Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) , Basel , Switzerland
| | - Andreas Ehler
- Small Molecule Research, Roche Innovation Center Basel , Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) , Basel , Switzerland
| | - Matthias E. Lauer
- Chemical Biology, Roche Innovation Center Basel , Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) , Basel , Switzerland
| | - Philippe Ringler
- Center for Cellular Imaging and Nano Analytics , Biozentrum University of Basel , Basel , Switzerland
| | - Sebastian Kobold
- Center of Integrated Protein Science Munich (CIPS-M) and Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine IV , University Hospital, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, German Center for Lung Research (DZL) , Munich , Germany
- German Center for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK) , Partner Site Munich , Munich , Germany
| | - Stefan Endres
- Center of Integrated Protein Science Munich (CIPS-M) and Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine IV , University Hospital, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, German Center for Lung Research (DZL) , Munich , Germany
- German Center for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK) , Partner Site Munich , Munich , Germany
| | - Christian Klein
- Discovery Oncology, Roche Innovation Center Zurich , Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) , Schlieren , Switzerland
| | - Ulrich Brinkmann
- Large Molecule Research (LMR), Roche Innovation Center Munich , Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) , Penzberg , Germany
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31
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Orozco CT, Bersellini M, Irving LM, Howard WW, Hargreaves D, Devine PWA, Siouve E, Browne GJ, Bond NJ, Phillips JJ, Ravn P, Jackson SE. Mechanistic insights into the rational design of masked antibodies. MAbs 2022; 14:2095701. [PMID: 35799328 PMCID: PMC9272835 DOI: 10.1080/19420862.2022.2095701] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Although monoclonal antibodies have greatly improved cancer therapy, they can trigger side effects due to on-target, off-tumor toxicity. Over the past decade, strategies have emerged to successfully mask the antigen-binding site of antibodies, such that they are only activated at the relevant site, for example, after proteolytic cleavage. However, the methods for designing an ideal affinity-based mask and what parameters are important are not yet well understood. Here, we undertook mechanistic studies using three masks with different properties and identified four critical factors: binding site and affinity, as well as association and dissociation rate constants, which also played an important role. HDX-MS was used to identify the location of binding sites on the antibody, which were subsequently validated by obtaining a high-resolution crystal structure for one of the mask-antibody complexes. These findings will inform future designs of optimal affinity-based masks for antibodies and other therapeutic proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carolina T Orozco
- Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.,Biologics Engineering, R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK.,Analytical Sciences, Biopharmaceutical Development, R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK
| | | | | | - Wesley W Howard
- Analytical Sciences, Biopharmaceutical Development, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, MD, USA
| | | | - Paul W A Devine
- Analytical Sciences, Biopharmaceutical Development, R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK
| | - Elise Siouve
- Biologics Engineering, R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK.,Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | | | - Nicholas J Bond
- Analytical Sciences, Biopharmaceutical Development, R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK
| | | | - Peter Ravn
- Biologics Engineering, R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK.,Department of Biotherapeutic Discovery, H. Lundbeck A/S, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Sophie E Jackson
- Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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32
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Yang T, Mochida Y, Liu X, Zhou H, Xie J, Anraku Y, Kinoh H, Cabral H, Kataoka K. Conjugation of glucosylated polymer chains to checkpoint blockade antibodies augments their efficacy and specificity for glioblastoma. Nat Biomed Eng 2021; 5:1274-1287. [PMID: 34635819 DOI: 10.1038/s41551-021-00803-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2020] [Accepted: 09/01/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Because of the blood-tumour barrier and cross-reactivity with healthy tissues, immune checkpoint blockade therapy against glioblastoma has inadequate efficacy and is associated with a high risk of immune-related adverse events. Here we show that anti-programmed death-ligand 1 antibodies conjugated with multiple poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) chains functionalized to target glucose transporter 1 (which is overexpressed in brain capillaries) and detaching in the reductive tumour microenvironment augment the potency and safety of checkpoint blockade therapy against glioblastoma. In mice bearing orthotopic glioblastoma tumours, a single dose of glucosylated and multi-PEGylated antibodies reinvigorated antitumour immune responses, induced immunological memory that protected the animals against rechallenge with tumour cells, and suppressed autoimmune responses in the animals' healthy tissues. Drug-delivery formulations leveraging multivalent ligand interactions and the properties of the tumour microenvironment to facilitate the crossing of blood-tumour barriers and increase drug specificity may enhance the efficacy and safety of other antibody-based therapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tao Yang
- Innovation Center of NanoMedicine, Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion, Kawasaki, Japan
| | - Yuki Mochida
- Innovation Center of NanoMedicine, Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion, Kawasaki, Japan
| | - Xueying Liu
- Innovation Center of NanoMedicine, Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion, Kawasaki, Japan
| | - Hang Zhou
- Innovation Center of NanoMedicine, Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion, Kawasaki, Japan
| | - Jinbing Xie
- Innovation Center of NanoMedicine, Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion, Kawasaki, Japan
| | - Yasutaka Anraku
- Department of Bioengineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Hiroaki Kinoh
- Innovation Center of NanoMedicine, Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion, Kawasaki, Japan
| | - Horacio Cabral
- Department of Bioengineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
| | - Kazunori Kataoka
- Innovation Center of NanoMedicine, Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion, Kawasaki, Japan. .,Institute for Future Initiatives, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
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33
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Next generation of tumor-activating type I IFN enhances anti-tumor immune responses to overcome therapy resistance. Nat Commun 2021; 12:5866. [PMID: 34620867 PMCID: PMC8497482 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26112-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2021] [Accepted: 09/14/2021] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Type I interferon is promising in treating different kinds of tumors, but has been limited by its toxicity, lack of tumor targeting, and very short half-life. To target tumors, reduce systemic toxicity, and increase half-life, here we engineer a masked type I IFN-Fc (ProIFN) with its natural receptor connected by a cleavable linker that can be targeted by tumor-associated proteases. ProIFN has a prolonged serum half-life and shows an improved tumor-targeting effect. Interestingly, ProIFN-treated mice show enhanced DC cross-priming and significant increased CD8+ infiltration and effector function in the tumor microenvironment. ProIFN is able to improve checkpoint blockade efficacy in established tumors, as well as radiation efficacy for both primary and metastatic tumors. ProIFN exhibits superior long-term pharmacokinetics with minimal toxicity in monkeys. Therefore, this study demonstrates an effective tumor-activating IFN that can increase targeted immunity against primary tumor or metastasis and reduce periphery toxicity to the host. Several studies have demonstrated that IFN-I administration can boost anti-tumor immune response against solid tumors. Here, to overcome the limitations of systemic IFN-I therapy (side effects, short half-life), the authors design a masked IFN-I prodrug activatable by tumor-associated proteases, showing preserved anti-tumor activity but reduced toxicity.
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34
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Zhao Y, Xie YQ, Van Herck S, Nassiri S, Gao M, Guo Y, Tang L. Switchable immune modulator for tumor-specific activation of anticancer immunity. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2021; 7:eabg7291. [PMID: 34516776 PMCID: PMC8442900 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abg7291] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
Immune stimulatory antibodies and cytokines elicit potent antitumor immunity. However, the dose-limiting systemic toxicity greatly hinders their clinical applications. Here, we demonstrate a chemical approach, termed “switchable” immune modulator (Sw-IM), to limit the systemic exposure and therefore ameliorate their toxicities. Sw-IM is a biomacromolecular therapeutic reversibly masked by biocompatible polymers through chemical linkers that are responsive to tumor-specific stimuli, such as high reducing potential and acidic pH. Sw-IMs stay inert (switch off) in the circulation and healthy tissues but get reactivated (switch on) selectively in tumor via responsive removal of the polymer masks, thus focusing the immune boosting activities in the tumor microenvironment. Sw-IMs applied to anti–4-1BB agonistic antibody and IL-15 cytokine led to equivalent antitumor efficacy to the parental IMs with markedly reduced toxicities. Sw-IM provides a highly modular and generic approach to improve the therapeutic window and clinical applicability of potent IMs in mono- and combinational immunotherapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yu Zhao
- Institute of Bioengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- Institute of Materials Science & Engineering, EPFL, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Yu-Qing Xie
- Institute of Bioengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Simon Van Herck
- Institute of Bioengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Pharmaceutics, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
| | - Sina Nassiri
- Bioinformatics Core Facility, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Min Gao
- Institute of Bioengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Yugang Guo
- Institute of Bioengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- Institute of Materials Science & Engineering, EPFL, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Li Tang
- Institute of Bioengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- Institute of Materials Science & Engineering, EPFL, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- Corresponding author.
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35
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Howng B, Winter MB, LePage C, Popova I, Krimm M, Vasiljeva O. Novel Ex Vivo Zymography Approach for Assessment of Protease Activity in Tissues with Activatable Antibodies. Pharmaceutics 2021; 13:pharmaceutics13091390. [PMID: 34575469 PMCID: PMC8471274 DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics13091390] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2021] [Revised: 08/05/2021] [Accepted: 08/17/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Proteases are involved in the control of numerous physiological processes, and their dysregulation has been identified in a wide range of pathologies, including cancer. Protease activity is normally tightly regulated post-translationally and therefore cannot be accurately estimated based on mRNA or protein expression alone. While several types of zymography approaches to estimate protease activity exist, there remains a need for a robust and reliable technique to measure protease activity in biological tissues. We present a novel quantitative ex vivo zymography (QZ) technology based on Probody® therapeutics (Pb-Tx), a novel class of protease-activated cancer therapeutics that contain a substrate linker cleavable by tumor-associated proteases. This approach enables the measurement and comparison of protease activity in biological tissues via the detection of Pb-Tx activation. By exploiting substrate specificity and selectivity, cataloguing and differentiating protease activities is possible, with further refinement achieved using protease-specific inhibitors. Using the QZ assay and human tumor xenografts, patient tumor tissues, and patient plasma, we characterized protease activity in preclinical and clinical samples. The QZ assay offers the potential to increase our understanding of protease activity in tissues and inform diagnostic and therapeutic development for diseases, such as cancer, that are characterized by dysregulated proteolysis.
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36
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Jiang Z, Feng X, Zou H, Xu W, Zhuang X. Poly(l-glutamic acid)-cisplatin nanoformulations with detachable PEGylation for prolonged circulation half-life and enhanced cell internalization. Bioact Mater 2021; 6:2688-2697. [PMID: 33665501 PMCID: PMC7895728 DOI: 10.1016/j.bioactmat.2021.01.034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2020] [Revised: 01/21/2021] [Accepted: 01/29/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
PEGylation has been widely applied to prolong the circulation times of nanomedicines via the steric shielding effect, which consequently improves the intratumoral accumulation. However, cell uptake of PEGylated nanoformulations is always blocked by the steric repulsion of PEG, which limits their therapeutic effect. To this end, we designed and prepared two kinds of poly(l-glutamic acid)-cisplatin (PLG-CDDP) nanoformulations with detachable PEG, which is responsive to specific tumor tissue microenvironments for prolonged circulation time and enhanced cell internalization. The extracellular pH (pHe)-responsive cleavage 2-propionic-3-methylmaleic anhydride (CDM)-derived amide bond and matrix metalloproteinases-2/9 (MMP-2/9)-sensitive degradable peptide PLGLAG were utilized to link PLG and PEG, yielding pHe-responsive PEG-pH e-PLG and MMP-sensitive PEG-MMP-PLG. The corresponding smart nanoformulations PEG-pH e-PLG-Pt and PEG-MMP-PLG-Pt were then prepared by the complexation of polypeptides and cisplatin (CDDP). The circulation half-lives of PEG-pH e-PLG-Pt and PEG-MMP-PLG-Pt were about 4.6 and 4.2 times higher than that of the control PLG-Pt, respectively. Upon reaching tumor tissue, PEG on the surface of nanomedicines was detached as triggered by pHe or MMP, which increased intratumoral CDDP retention, enhanced cell uptake, and improved antitumor efficacy toward a fatal high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) mouse model, indicating the promising prospects for clinical application of detachable PEGylated nanoformulations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhongyu Jiang
- Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 5625 Renmin Street, Changchun, 130022, P. R. China
- School of Applied Chemistry and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, 230026, P. R. China
| | - Xiangru Feng
- Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 5625 Renmin Street, Changchun, 130022, P. R. China
| | - Haoyang Zou
- Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 5625 Renmin Street, Changchun, 130022, P. R. China
| | - Weiguo Xu
- Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 5625 Renmin Street, Changchun, 130022, P. R. China
| | - Xiuli Zhuang
- Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 5625 Renmin Street, Changchun, 130022, P. R. China
- School of Applied Chemistry and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, 230026, P. R. China
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37
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Oberoi HK, Garralda E. Unmasking New Promises: Expanding the Antigen Landscape For Antibody-Drug Conjugates. Clin Cancer Res 2021; 27:4459-4461. [PMID: 34135020 PMCID: PMC9306344 DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-21-1353] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2021] [Revised: 05/19/2021] [Accepted: 05/26/2021] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Cross-reactivity with normal tissues is one of the key concerns for target selection for antibody-drug conjugates. Probody therapeutics are masked antibodies that can selectively be activated by proteases in the tumor. CX-2029, is a first-in-class Probody targeting CD71 with preliminary efficacy and a tolerable safety profile.See related article by Johnson et al., p. 4521.
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Affiliation(s)
- Honey K. Oberoi
- Department of Medical Oncology, Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain.,Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Elena Garralda
- Department of Medical Oncology, Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain.,Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Barcelona, Spain.,Corresponding Author: Elena Garralda, Oncology, Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Barcelona 08035, Spain. Phone: 349-3489-4350; E-mail:
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38
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Huang BC, Lu YC, Liao JM, Liu HJ, Hong ST, Hsieh YC, Chuang CH, Chen HJ, Liao TY, Ho KW, Wang YT, Cheng TL. Development of a structure-based computational simulation to optimize the blocking efficacy of pro-antibodies. Chem Sci 2021; 12:9759-9769. [PMID: 34349949 PMCID: PMC8293997 DOI: 10.1039/d1sc01748a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2021] [Revised: 07/20/2021] [Accepted: 06/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The on-target toxicity of monoclonal antibodies (Abs) is mainly due to the fact that Abs cannot distinguish target antigens (Ags) expressed in disease regions from those in normal tissues during systemic administration. In order to overcome this issue, we “copied” an autologous Ab hinge as an “Ab lock” and “pasted” it on the binding site of the Ab by connecting a protease substrate and linker in between to generate a pro-Ab, which can be specifically activated in the disease region to enhance Ab selectivity and reduce side effects. Previously, we reported that 70% of pro-Abs can achieve more than 100-fold blocking ability compared to the parental Abs. However, 30% of pro-Abs do not have such efficient blocking ability. This is because the same Ab lock linker cannot be applied to every Ab due to the differences in the complementarity-determining region (CDR) loops. Here we designed a method which uses structure-based computational simulation (MSCS) to optimize the blocking ability of the Ab lock for all Ab drugs. MSCS can precisely adjust the amino acid composition of the linker between the Ab lock and Ab drug with the assistance of molecular simulation. We selected αPD-1, αIL-1β, αCTLA-4 and αTNFα Ab as models and attached the Ab lock with various linkers (L1 to L7) to form pro-Abs by MSCS, respectively. The resulting cover rates of the Ab lock with various linkers compared to the Ab drug were in the range 28.33–42.33%. The recombinant pro-Abs were generated by MSCS prediction in order to verify the application of molecular simulation for pro-Ab development. The binding kinetics effective concentrations (EC-50) for αPD-1 (200-250-fold), αIL-1β (152-186-fold), αCTLA-4 (68-150-fold) and αTNFα Ab (20-123-fold) were presented as the blocking ability of pro-Ab compared to the Ab drug. Further, there was a positive correlation between cover rate and blocking ability of all pro-Ab candidates. The results suggested that MSCS was able to predict the Ab lock linker most suitable for application to αPD-1, αIL-1β, αCTLA-4 and αTNFα Ab to form pro-Abs efficiently. The success of MSCS in optimizing the pro-Ab can aid the development of next-generation pro-Ab drugs to significantly improve Ab-based therapies and thus patients' quality of life. The pro-Ab blocks the Ag binding site using an Ab lock. We designed a method which uses structure-based computational simulation (MSCS) to predict the cover rate of Ab locks with various linkers and select the suitable linker for each Ab.![]()
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Affiliation(s)
- Bo-Cheng Huang
- Institute of Biomedical Sciences, National Sun Yat-Sen University Kaohsiung Taiwan
| | - Yun-Chi Lu
- Department of Biomedical Science and Environmental Biology, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung Taiwan.,Drug Development and Value Creation Research Center, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung Taiwan
| | - Jun-Min Liao
- Department of Biomedical Science and Environmental Biology, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung Taiwan.,Drug Development and Value Creation Research Center, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung Taiwan
| | - Hui-Ju Liu
- Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung Taiwan
| | - Shih-Ting Hong
- Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung Taiwan
| | - Yuan-Chin Hsieh
- School of Medicine for International Students, I-Shou University Kaohsiung Taiwan
| | - Chih-Hung Chuang
- Drug Development and Value Creation Research Center, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung Taiwan.,Department of Medical Laboratory Science and Biotechnology, College of Health Sciences, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung Taiwan
| | - Huei-Jen Chen
- Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung Taiwan
| | - Tzu-Yi Liao
- Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung Taiwan
| | - Kai-Wen Ho
- Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung Taiwan
| | - Yeng-Tseng Wang
- Department of Biochemistry, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung Taiwan
| | - Tian-Lu Cheng
- Institute of Biomedical Sciences, National Sun Yat-Sen University Kaohsiung Taiwan .,Department of Biomedical Science and Environmental Biology, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung Taiwan.,Drug Development and Value Creation Research Center, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung Taiwan.,Department of Medical Research, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital Kaohsiung Taiwan
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39
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Lucchi R, Bentanachs J, Oller-Salvia B. The Masking Game: Design of Activatable Antibodies and Mimetics for Selective Therapeutics and Cell Control. ACS CENTRAL SCIENCE 2021; 7:724-738. [PMID: 34079893 PMCID: PMC8161478 DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.0c01448] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2020] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
The high selectivity and affinity of antibody binding have made antibodies all-pervasive tools in therapy, diagnosis, and basic science. A plethora of chemogenetic approaches has been devised to make antibodies responsive to stimuli ranging from light to enzymatic activity, temperature, pH, ions, and effector molecules. Within a single decade, the field of activatable antibodies has yielded marketed therapeutics capable of engaging antigens that could not be targeted with traditional antibodies, as well as new tools to control intracellular protein location and investigate biological processes. Many opportunities remain untapped, waiting for more efficient and generally applicable masking strategies to be developed at the interface between chemistry and biotechnology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roberta Lucchi
- Grup d’Enginyeria
de Materials, Institut Químic de
Sarrià (IQS), Universitat Ramon Llull, 08017 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Jordi Bentanachs
- Grup d’Enginyeria
de Materials, Institut Químic de
Sarrià (IQS), Universitat Ramon Llull, 08017 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Benjamí Oller-Salvia
- Grup d’Enginyeria
de Materials, Institut Químic de
Sarrià (IQS), Universitat Ramon Llull, 08017 Barcelona, Spain
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40
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Schwerdtfeger M, Benmebarek MR, Endres S, Subklewe M, Desiderio V, Kobold S. Chimeric Antigen Receptor-Modified T Cells and T Cell-Engaging Bispecific Antibodies: Different Tools for the Same Job. Curr Hematol Malig Rep 2021; 16:218-233. [PMID: 33939108 PMCID: PMC8154758 DOI: 10.1007/s11899-021-00628-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW Both chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells and T cell-engaging antibodies (BiAb) have been approved for the treatment of hematological malignancies. However, despite targeting the same antigen, they represent very different classes of therapeutics, each with its distinct advantages and drawbacks. In this review, we compare BiAb and CAR T cells with regard to their mechanism of action, manufacturing, and clinical application. In addition, we present novel strategies to overcome limitations of either approach and to combine the best of both worlds. RECENT FINDINGS By now there are multiple approaches combining the advantages of BiAb and CAR T cells. A major area of research is the application of both formats for solid tumor entities. This includes improving the infiltration of T cells into the tumor, counteracting immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment, targeting antigen heterogeneity, and limiting off-tumor on-target effects. BiAb come with the major advantage of being an off-the-shelf product and are more controllable because of their half-life. They have also been reported to induce less frequent and less severe adverse events. CAR T cells in turn demonstrate superior response rates, have the potential for long-term persistence, and can be additionally genetically modified to overcome some of their limitations, e.g., to make them more controllable.
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MESH Headings
- Animals
- Antibodies, Bispecific/genetics
- Antibodies, Bispecific/immunology
- Antigens, Neoplasm/immunology
- Genetic Engineering
- Humans
- Immunotherapy, Adoptive/adverse effects
- Immunotherapy, Adoptive/methods
- Lymphocyte Activation/immunology
- Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating/immunology
- Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating/metabolism
- Neoplasms/etiology
- Neoplasms/therapy
- Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell/genetics
- Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell/immunology
- Receptors, Chimeric Antigen/genetics
- Receptors, Chimeric Antigen/immunology
- Signal Transduction
- T-Lymphocyte Subsets/immunology
- T-Lymphocyte Subsets/metabolism
- T-Lymphocytes/immunology
- T-Lymphocytes/metabolism
- Tumor Microenvironment/genetics
- Tumor Microenvironment/immunology
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Affiliation(s)
- Melanie Schwerdtfeger
- Center of Integrated Protein Science Munich (CIPS-M) and Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine IV, Klinikum der Universität München, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Naples, Italy
| | - Mohamed-Reda Benmebarek
- Center of Integrated Protein Science Munich (CIPS-M) and Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine IV, Klinikum der Universität München, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Stefan Endres
- Center of Integrated Protein Science Munich (CIPS-M) and Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine IV, Klinikum der Universität München, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
- German Center for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK), Munich, Germany
- Einheit für Klinische Pharmakologie (EKLiP), Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health (HMGU), Neuherberg, Germany
| | - Marion Subklewe
- Department of Medicine III, Klinikum der Universität München, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Vincenzo Desiderio
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Naples, Italy
| | - Sebastian Kobold
- Center of Integrated Protein Science Munich (CIPS-M) and Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine IV, Klinikum der Universität München, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
- German Center for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK), Munich, Germany
- Einheit für Klinische Pharmakologie (EKLiP), Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health (HMGU), Neuherberg, Germany
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41
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Singh A, Dees S, Grewal IS. Overcoming the challenges associated with CD3+ T-cell redirection in cancer. Br J Cancer 2021; 124:1037-1048. [PMID: 33469153 PMCID: PMC7960983 DOI: 10.1038/s41416-020-01225-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2020] [Revised: 11/24/2020] [Accepted: 11/30/2020] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
The development of bispecific antibodies that redirect the cytotoxic activity of CD3+ T cells to tumours is a promising immunotherapeutic strategy for the treatment of haematological malignancies and solid cancers. Since the landmark FDA approval at the end of 2014 of the anti-CD3 × anti-CD19 bispecific antibody blinatumomab (Blincyto®) for the treatment of relapsed/refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, ~100 clinical trials investigating the safety and efficacy of CD3+ bispecific T-cell redirectors for cancer have been initiated. However, despite early success, numerous challenges pertaining to CD3+ T-cell redirection in the context of cancer exist, including the recruitment of counterproductive CD3+ T-cell subsets, the release of systemic cytokines, the expansion of immune checkpoint molecules, the presence of an immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment, tumour antigen loss/escape, on-target off-tumour toxicity and suboptimal potency. The aim of the present review is to discuss novel approaches to overcome the key challenges associated with CD3+ bispecific T-cell redirection in order to achieve an optimal balance of anti-tumour activity and safety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ajit Singh
- University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Sundee Dees
- Janssen Biotherapeutics, The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, Spring House, PA, USA
| | - Iqbal S Grewal
- Janssen Biotherapeutics, The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, Spring House, PA, USA.
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42
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Utterström J, Naeimipour S, Selegård R, Aili D. Coiled coil-based therapeutics and drug delivery systems. Adv Drug Deliv Rev 2021; 170:26-43. [PMID: 33378707 DOI: 10.1016/j.addr.2020.12.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2020] [Revised: 12/18/2020] [Accepted: 12/20/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Coiled coils are characterized by an arrangement of two or more α-helices into a superhelix and one of few protein motifs where the sequence-to-structure relationship to a large extent have been decoded and understood. The abundance of both natural and de novo designed coil coils provides a rich molecular toolbox for self-assembly of elaborate bespoke molecular architectures, nanostructures, and materials. Leveraging on the numerous possibilities to tune both affinities and preferences for polypeptide oligomerization, coiled coils offer unique possibilities to design modular and dynamic assemblies that can respond in a predictable manner to biomolecular interactions and subtle physicochemical cues. In this review, strategies to use coiled coils in design of novel therapeutics and advanced drug delivery systems are discussed. The applications of coiled coils for generating drug carriers and vaccines, and various aspects of using coiled coils for controlling and triggering drug release, and for improving drug targeting and drug uptake are described. The plethora of innovative coiled coil-based molecular systems provide new knowledge and techniques for improving efficacy of existing drugs and can facilitate development of novel therapeutic strategies.
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43
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Dovedi SJ, Elder MJ, Yang C, Sitnikova SI, Irving L, Hansen A, Hair J, Jones DC, Hasani S, Wang B, Im SA, Tran B, Subramaniam DS, Gainer SD, Vashisht K, Lewis A, Jin X, Kentner S, Mulgrew K, Wang Y, Overstreet MG, Dodgson J, Wu Y, Palazon A, Morrow M, Rainey GJ, Browne GJ, Neal F, Murray TV, Toloczko AD, Dall'Acqua W, Achour I, Freeman DJ, Wilkinson RW, Mazor Y. Design and Efficacy of a Monovalent Bispecific PD-1/CTLA4 Antibody That Enhances CTLA4 Blockade on PD-1 + Activated T Cells. Cancer Discov 2021; 11:1100-1117. [PMID: 33419761 DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.cd-20-1445] [Citation(s) in RCA: 88] [Impact Index Per Article: 29.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2020] [Revised: 12/04/2020] [Accepted: 12/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The clinical benefit of PD-1 blockade can be improved by combination with CTLA4 inhibition but is commensurate with significant immune-related adverse events suboptimally limiting the doses of anti-CTLA4 mAb that can be used. MEDI5752 is a monovalent bispecific antibody designed to suppress the PD-1 pathway and provide modulated CTLA4 inhibition favoring enhanced blockade on PD-1+ activated T cells. We show that MEDI5752 preferentially saturates CTLA4 on PD-1+ T cells versus PD-1- T cells, reducing the dose required to elicit IL2 secretion. Unlike conventional PD-1/CTLA4 mAbs, MEDI5752 leads to the rapid internalization and degradation of PD-1. Moreover, we show that MEDI5752 preferentially localizes and accumulates in tumors providing enhanced activity when compared with a combination of mAbs targeting PD-1 and CTLA4 in vivo. Following treatment with MEDI5752, robust partial responses were observed in two patients with advanced solid tumors. MEDI5752 represents a novel immunotherapy engineered to preferentially inhibit CTLA4 on PD-1+ T cells. SIGNIFICANCE: The unique characteristics of MEDI5752 represent a novel immunotherapy engineered to direct CTLA4 inhibition to PD-1+ T cells with the potential for differentiated activity when compared with current conventional mAb combination strategies targeting PD-1 and CTLA4. This molecule therefore represents a step forward in the rational design of cancer immunotherapy.See related commentary by Burton and Tawbi, p. 1008.This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 995.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon J Dovedi
- Early Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
| | | | - Chunning Yang
- Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, Maryland
| | | | - Lorraine Irving
- Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, Maryland
| | - Anna Hansen
- Translational Science and Experimental Medicine, Respiratory and Immunology (RI), Biopharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, Maryland
| | - James Hair
- Early Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Des C Jones
- Early Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Sumati Hasani
- Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, Maryland
| | - Bo Wang
- Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, Maryland
| | - Seock-Ah Im
- Division of Hematology-Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul National University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
| | - Ben Tran
- Department of Medical Oncology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia
| | | | | | - Kapil Vashisht
- Early Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Arthur Lewis
- Early Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Xiaofang Jin
- Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, Maryland
| | - Stacy Kentner
- Early Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Kathy Mulgrew
- Early Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Yaya Wang
- Early Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | | | - James Dodgson
- Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, Maryland
| | - Yanli Wu
- Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, Maryland
| | - Asis Palazon
- Early Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | | | | | - Gareth J Browne
- Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, Maryland
| | - Frances Neal
- Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, Maryland
| | - Thomas V Murray
- Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, Maryland
| | - Aleksandra D Toloczko
- Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, Maryland
| | - William Dall'Acqua
- Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, Maryland
| | - Ikbel Achour
- Early Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | | | | | - Yariv Mazor
- Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, Maryland.
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44
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Soleimany AP, Kirkpatrick JD, Su S, Dudani JS, Zhong Q, Bekdemir A, Bhatia SN. Activatable Zymography Probes Enable In Situ Localization of Protease Dysregulation in Cancer. Cancer Res 2020; 81:213-224. [PMID: 33106334 DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.can-20-2410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2020] [Revised: 09/16/2020] [Accepted: 10/21/2020] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Recent years have seen the emergence of conditionally activated diagnostics and therapeutics that leverage protease-cleavable peptide linkers to enhance their specificity for cancer. However, due to a lack of methods to measure and localize protease activity directly within the tissue microenvironment, the design of protease-activated agents has been necessarily empirical, yielding suboptimal results when translated to patients. To address the need for spatially resolved protease activity profiling in cancer, we developed a new class of in situ probes that can be applied to fresh-frozen tissue sections in a manner analogous to immunofluorescence staining. These activatable zymography probes (AZP) detected dysregulated protease activity in human prostate cancer biopsy samples, enabling disease classification. AZPs were leveraged within a generalizable framework to design conditional cancer diagnostics and therapeutics and showcased in the Hi-Myc mouse model of prostate cancer, which models features of early pathogenesis. Multiplexed screening against barcoded substrates yielded a peptide, S16, that was robustly and specifically cleaved by tumor-associated metalloproteinases in the Hi-Myc model. In situ labeling with an AZP incorporating S16 revealed a potential role of metalloproteinase dysregulation in proliferative, premalignant Hi-Myc prostatic glands. Systemic administration of an in vivo imaging probe incorporating S16 perfectly classified diseased and healthy prostates, supporting the relevance of ex vivo activity assays to in vivo translation. We envision AZPs will enable new insights into the biology of protease dysregulation in cancer and accelerate the development of conditional diagnostics and therapeutics for multiple cancer types. SIGNIFICANCE: Visualization of protease activity within the native tissue context using AZPs provides new biological insights into protease dysregulation in cancer and guides the design of conditional diagnostics and therapeutics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ava P Soleimany
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Harvard Graduate Program in Biophysics, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Jesse D Kirkpatrick
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Susan Su
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Jaideep S Dudani
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Qian Zhong
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Ahmet Bekdemir
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Sangeeta N Bhatia
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. .,Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.,Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Wyss Institute at Harvard, Boston, Massachusetts.,Ludwig Center at the MIT Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts
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45
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Mangeat T, Gracia M, Martineau P, Robert B. Stratégies de ciblage spécifique de la tumeur fondées sur les caractéristiques des antigènes tumoraux et du microenvironnement tumoral. Med Sci (Paris) 2020; 36 Hors série n° 1:56-60. [DOI: 10.1051/medsci/2020194] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
L’immunothérapie à base d’anticorps monoclonaux (AcM) connaît un plein essor en cancérologie. En 2020, plus de 40% des anticorps approuvés par la FDA (Food and Drug Administration) (34 sur 84 anticorps, selon The Antibody Society) ont une indication pour les thérapies anti-cancéreuses. Contrairement à la chimiothérapie standard, ils démontrent un bien meilleur profil de tolérance pour les patients. Malgré cela, des effets indésirables néfastes peuvent survenir en raison du ciblage de l’antigène qui est également exprimé au niveau des tissus sains. C’est pourquoi des stratégies émergentes visent à optimiser le format des anticorps et à tenir compte des particularités du microenvironnement tumoral pour conférer une action encore plus spécifique de l’anticorps au niveau tumoral.
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46
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Yang J, Dai J, Wang Q, Cheng Y, Guo J, Zhao Z, Hong Y, Lou X, Xia F. Tumor‐Triggered Disassembly of a Multiple‐Agent‐Therapy Probe for Efficient Cellular Internalization. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2020. [DOI: 10.1002/ange.202009196] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Juliang Yang
- Engineering Research Center of Nano-Geomaterials of Ministry of Education Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry China University of Geosciences Wuhan 430078 China
| | - Jun Dai
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Tongji Hospital Tongji Medical College Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan 430030 China
| | - Quan Wang
- Engineering Research Center of Nano-Geomaterials of Ministry of Education Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry China University of Geosciences Wuhan 430078 China
| | - Yong Cheng
- Engineering Research Center of Nano-Geomaterials of Ministry of Education Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry China University of Geosciences Wuhan 430078 China
| | - Jingjing Guo
- State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Luminescence from Molecular Aggregates South China University of Technology Guangzhou 510640 China
| | - Zujin Zhao
- State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Luminescence from Molecular Aggregates South China University of Technology Guangzhou 510640 China
| | - Yuning Hong
- Department of Chemistry and Physics La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science La Trobe University Melbourne VIC 3086 Australia
| | - Xiaoding Lou
- Engineering Research Center of Nano-Geomaterials of Ministry of Education Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry China University of Geosciences Wuhan 430078 China
| | - Fan Xia
- Engineering Research Center of Nano-Geomaterials of Ministry of Education Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry China University of Geosciences Wuhan 430078 China
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47
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Yang J, Dai J, Wang Q, Cheng Y, Guo J, Zhao Z, Hong Y, Lou X, Xia F. Tumor-Triggered Disassembly of a Multiple-Agent-Therapy Probe for Efficient Cellular Internalization. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2020; 59:20405-20410. [PMID: 32720727 DOI: 10.1002/anie.202009196] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2020] [Revised: 07/25/2020] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Integration of multiple agent therapy (MAT) into one probe is promising for improving therapeutic efficiency for cancer treatment. However, MAT probe, if entering the cell as a whole, may not be optimal for each therapeutic agent (with different physicochemical properties), to achieve their best performance, hindering strategy optimization. A peptide-conjugated-AIEgen (FC-PyTPA) is presented: upon loading with siRNA, it self-assembles into FCsiRNA -PyTPA. When approaching the region near tumor cells, FCsiRNA -PyTPA responds to extracellular MMP-2 and is cleaved into FCsiRNA and PyTPA. The former enters cells mainly by macropinocytosis and the latter is internalized into cells mainly through caveolae-mediated endocytosis. This two-part strategy greatly improves the internalization efficiency of each individual therapeutic agent. Inside the cell, self-assembly of nanofiber precursor F, gene interference of CsiRNA , and ROS production of PyTPA are activated to inhibit tumor growth.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juliang Yang
- Engineering Research Center of Nano-Geomaterials of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430078, China
| | - Jun Dai
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China
| | - Quan Wang
- Engineering Research Center of Nano-Geomaterials of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430078, China
| | - Yong Cheng
- Engineering Research Center of Nano-Geomaterials of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430078, China
| | - Jingjing Guo
- State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Luminescence from Molecular Aggregates, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China
| | - Zujin Zhao
- State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Luminescence from Molecular Aggregates, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China
| | - Yuning Hong
- Department of Chemistry and Physics, La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, 3086, Australia
| | - Xiaoding Lou
- Engineering Research Center of Nano-Geomaterials of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430078, China
| | - Fan Xia
- Engineering Research Center of Nano-Geomaterials of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430078, China
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48
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Lin WW, Lu YC, Chuang CH, Cheng TL. Ab locks for improving the selectivity and safety of antibody drugs. J Biomed Sci 2020; 27:76. [PMID: 32586313 PMCID: PMC7318374 DOI: 10.1186/s12929-020-00652-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2020] [Accepted: 04/22/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are a major targeted therapy for malignancies, infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, transplant rejection and chronic inflammatory diseases due to their antigen specificity and longer half-life than conventional drugs. However, long-term systemic antigen neutralization by mAbs may cause severe adverse events. Improving the selectivity of mAbs to distinguish target antigens at the disease site from normal healthy tissue and reducing severe adverse events caused by the mechanisms-of-action of mAbs is still a pressing need. Development of pro-antibodies (pro-Abs) by installing a protease-cleavable Ab lock is a novel and advanced recombinant Ab-based strategy that efficiently masks the antigen binding ability of mAbs in the normal state and selectively "turns on" the mAb activity when the pro-Ab reaches the proteolytic protease-overexpressed diseased tissue. In this review, we discuss the design and advantages/disadvantages of different Ab lock strategies, focusing particularly on spatial-hindrance-based and affinity peptide-based approaches. We expect that the development of different masking strategies for mAbs will benefit the local reactivity of mAbs at the disease site, increase the therapeutic efficacy and safety of long-term treatment with mAbs in chronic diseases and even permit scientists to develop Ab drugs for formerly undruggable targets and satisfy the unmet medical needs of mAb therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wen-Wei Lin
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Drug Development and Value Creation Research Center, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Department of Medical Research, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
| | - Yun-Chi Lu
- Drug Development and Value Creation Research Center, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Department of Biomedical and Environmental Biology, Kaohsiung Medical University, 100 Shih-Chuan 1st Road, Kaohsiung, 80708, Taiwan
| | - Chih-Hung Chuang
- Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Drug Development and Value Creation Research Center, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Department of Medical Laboratory Science and Biotechnology, College of Health Sciences, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
| | - Tian-Lu Cheng
- Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
- Drug Development and Value Creation Research Center, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
- Department of Medical Research, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
- Department of Biomedical and Environmental Biology, Kaohsiung Medical University, 100 Shih-Chuan 1st Road, Kaohsiung, 80708, Taiwan.
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49
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Geiger M, Stubenrauch KG, Sam J, Richter WF, Jordan G, Eckmann J, Hage C, Nicolini V, Freimoser-Grundschober A, Ritter M, Lauer ME, Stahlberg H, Ringler P, Patel J, Sullivan E, Grau-Richards S, Endres S, Kobold S, Umaña P, Brünker P, Klein C. Protease-activation using anti-idiotypic masks enables tumor specificity of a folate receptor 1-T cell bispecific antibody. Nat Commun 2020; 11:3196. [PMID: 32581215 PMCID: PMC7314773 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16838-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2018] [Accepted: 05/29/2020] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
T-cell bispecific antibodies (TCBs) crosslink tumor and T-cells to induce tumor cell killing. While TCBs are very potent, on-target off-tumor toxicity remains a challenge when selecting targets. Here, we describe a protease-activated anti-folate receptor 1 TCB (Prot-FOLR1-TCB) equipped with an anti-idiotypic anti-CD3 mask connected to the anti-CD3 Fab through a tumor protease-cleavable linker. The potency of this Prot- FOLR1-TCB is recovered following protease-cleavage of the linker releasing the anti-idiotypic anti-CD3 scFv. In vivo, the Prot-FOLR1-TCB mediates antitumor efficacy comparable to the parental FOLR1-TCB whereas a noncleavable control Prot-FOLR1-TCB is inactive. In contrast, killing of bronchial epithelial and renal cortical cells with low FOLR1 expression is prevented compared to the parental FOLR1-TCB. The findings are confirmed for mesothelin as alternative tumor antigen. Thus, masking the anti-CD3 Fab fragment with an anti-idiotypic mask and cleavage of the mask by tumor-specific proteases can be applied to enhance specificity and safety of TCBs.
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Grants
- SK is supported by grants from the Wilhelm Sander Stiftung (grant number 2014.018.1 to SE and SK), the international doctoral program “i-Target: Immunotargeting of cancer” funded by the Elite Network of Bavaria (to SK and SE), the Melanoma Research Alliance (grant number N269626 to SE and 409510 to SK), the Marie-Sklodowska-Curie “Training Network for the Immunotherapy of Cancer (IMMUTRAIN)” funded by the H2020 program of the European Union (to SE and SK), by LMU Munich‘s Institutional Strategy LMUexcellent within the framework of the German Excellence Initiative (to SE and SK), the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (project Oncoattract to SE and SK).
- SK and SE are supported by grants from the Wilhelm Sander Stiftung (grant number 2014.018.1 to SE and SK), the international doctoral program “i-Target: Immunotargeting of cancer” funded by the Elite Network of Bavaria (to SK and SE), the Melanoma Research Alliance (grant number N269626 to SE and 409510 to SK), the Marie-Sklodowska-Curie “Training Network for the Immunotherapy of Cancer (IMMUTRAIN)” funded by the H2020 program of the European Union (to SE and SK), the Else Kröner- Fresenius-Stiftung (to SK), the German Cancer Aid (to SK), the Ernst-Jung-Stiftung (to SK), by LMU Munich‘s Institutional Strategy LMUexcellent within the framework of the German Excellence Initiative (to SE and SK), the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (project Oncoattract to SE and SK), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the José-Carreras Leukämie Stiftung, the Hector-Foundation (all to SK) and the European Research Council (ERC, grant 756017, ARMOR-T to SK).
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Affiliation(s)
- Martina Geiger
- Roche Pharma Research & Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Zurich, Wagistrasse 10, 8952, Schlieren, Switzerland
- Center of Integrated Protein Science Munich (CIPS-M) and Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine IV, Klinikum der Universität München, Lindwurmstraße 2a, Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), 80337, Munich, Germany
| | - Kay-Gunnar Stubenrauch
- Roche Pharma Research & Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Munich, Nonnenwald 2, 82372, Penzberg, Germany
| | - Johannes Sam
- Roche Pharma Research & Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Zurich, Wagistrasse 10, 8952, Schlieren, Switzerland
| | - Wolfgang F Richter
- Roche Pharma Research & Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Basel, Grenzacherstrasse 124, 4070, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Gregor Jordan
- Roche Pharma Research & Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Munich, Nonnenwald 2, 82372, Penzberg, Germany
| | - Jan Eckmann
- Roche Pharma Research & Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Munich, Nonnenwald 2, 82372, Penzberg, Germany
| | - Carina Hage
- Roche Pharma Research & Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Munich, Nonnenwald 2, 82372, Penzberg, Germany
| | - Valeria Nicolini
- Roche Pharma Research & Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Zurich, Wagistrasse 10, 8952, Schlieren, Switzerland
| | - Anne Freimoser-Grundschober
- Roche Pharma Research & Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Zurich, Wagistrasse 10, 8952, Schlieren, Switzerland
| | - Mirko Ritter
- Roche Diagnostics, CPS Research and Development, Nonnenwald 2, 82372, Penzberg, Germany
| | - Matthias E Lauer
- Roche Pharma Research & Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Basel, Grenzacherstrasse 124, 4070, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Henning Stahlberg
- Center for Cellular Imaging and Nano Analytics, Biozentrum, University of Basel, 4070, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Philippe Ringler
- Center for Cellular Imaging and Nano Analytics, Biozentrum, University of Basel, 4070, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Jigar Patel
- Roche Sequencing, NimbleGen, Madison, WI, 53719, USA
- Nimble Therapeutics Inc., 500S Rosa Rd, Madison, WI, 53719, USA
| | - Eric Sullivan
- Roche Sequencing, NimbleGen, Madison, WI, 53719, USA
- Nimble Therapeutics Inc., 500S Rosa Rd, Madison, WI, 53719, USA
| | - Sandra Grau-Richards
- Roche Pharma Research & Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Zurich, Wagistrasse 10, 8952, Schlieren, Switzerland
| | - Stefan Endres
- Center of Integrated Protein Science Munich (CIPS-M) and Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine IV, Klinikum der Universität München, Lindwurmstraße 2a, Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), 80337, Munich, Germany
- Einheit für Klinische Pharmakologie (EKLiP), Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health (HMGU), Neuherberg, Germany
- German Center for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK), Partner Site Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Sebastian Kobold
- Center of Integrated Protein Science Munich (CIPS-M) and Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine IV, Klinikum der Universität München, Lindwurmstraße 2a, Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), 80337, Munich, Germany
- Einheit für Klinische Pharmakologie (EKLiP), Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health (HMGU), Neuherberg, Germany
- German Center for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK), Partner Site Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Pablo Umaña
- Roche Pharma Research & Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Zurich, Wagistrasse 10, 8952, Schlieren, Switzerland
| | - Peter Brünker
- Roche Pharma Research & Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Zurich, Wagistrasse 10, 8952, Schlieren, Switzerland
| | - Christian Klein
- Roche Pharma Research & Early Development, Roche Innovation Center Zurich, Wagistrasse 10, 8952, Schlieren, Switzerland.
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50
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Dahlsson Leitao C, S. Rinne S, Altai M, Vorontsova O, Dunås F, Jonasson P, Tolmachev V, Löfblom J, Ståhl S, Orlova A. Evaluating the Therapeutic Efficacy of Mono- and Bivalent Affibody-Based Fusion Proteins Targeting HER3 in a Pancreatic Cancer Xenograft Model. Pharmaceutics 2020; 12:pharmaceutics12060551. [PMID: 32545760 PMCID: PMC7356278 DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics12060551] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2020] [Revised: 06/08/2020] [Accepted: 06/09/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Human epidermal growth factor receptor 3 (HER3) has been increasingly scrutinized as a potential drug target since the elucidation of its role in mediating tumor growth and acquired therapy resistance. Affibody molecules are so-called scaffold proteins with favorable biophysical properties, such as a small size for improved tissue penetration and extravasation, thermal and chemical stability, and a high tolerance to modifications. Additionally, affibody molecules are efficiently produced in prokaryotic hosts or by chemical peptide synthesis. We have previously evaluated the biodistribution profiles of five mono- and bivalent anti-HER3 affibody molecules (designated as 3) fused to an albumin-binding domain (designated as A), 3A, 33A, 3A3, A33, and A3, that inhibit ligand-dependent phosphorylation. In the present study, we examined the therapeutic efficacy of the three most promising variants, 3A, 33A, and 3A3, in a direct comparison with the HER3-targeting monoclonal antibody seribantumab (MM-121) in a preclinical BxPC-3 pancreatic cancer model. Xenografted mice were treated with either an affibody construct or MM-121 and the tumor growth was compared to a vehicle group. Receptor occupancy was estimated by positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging using a HER3-targeting affibody imaging agent [68Ga]Ga-(HE)3-Z08698-NODAGA. The affibody molecules could inhibit ligand-dependent phosphorylation and cell proliferation in vitro and demonstrated tumor growth inhibition in vivo comparable to that of MM-121. PET/CT imaging showed full receptor occupancy for all tested drug candidates. Treatment with 3A and 3A3 affibody constructs was more efficient than with 33A and similar to the anti-HER3 antibody seribantumab, showing that the molecular design of affibody-based therapeutics targeting HER3 in terms of the relative position of functional domains and valency has an impact on therapeutic effect.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charles Dahlsson Leitao
- Department of Protein Science, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden; (C.D.L.); (J.L.)
| | - Sara S. Rinne
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Uppsala University, 751 23 Uppsala, Sweden; (S.S.R.); or (M.A.)
| | - Mohamed Altai
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Uppsala University, 751 23 Uppsala, Sweden; (S.S.R.); or (M.A.)
- Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, Uppsala University, 751 85 Uppsala, Sweden; (O.V.); (V.T.)
- Division of Oncology and Pathology, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, 221 00 Lund, Sweden
| | - Olga Vorontsova
- Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, Uppsala University, 751 85 Uppsala, Sweden; (O.V.); (V.T.)
| | - Finn Dunås
- Affibody AB, 171 65 Solna, Sweden; (F.D.); (P.J.)
| | - Per Jonasson
- Affibody AB, 171 65 Solna, Sweden; (F.D.); (P.J.)
| | - Vladimir Tolmachev
- Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, Uppsala University, 751 85 Uppsala, Sweden; (O.V.); (V.T.)
- Research Centrum for Oncotheranostics, Research School of Chemistry and Applied Biomedical Sciences, Tomsk Polytechnic University, 634050 Tomsk, Russia
| | - John Löfblom
- Department of Protein Science, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden; (C.D.L.); (J.L.)
| | - Stefan Ståhl
- Department of Protein Science, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden; (C.D.L.); (J.L.)
- Correspondence: (S.S.); (A.O.)
| | - Anna Orlova
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Uppsala University, 751 23 Uppsala, Sweden; (S.S.R.); or (M.A.)
- Research Centrum for Oncotheranostics, Research School of Chemistry and Applied Biomedical Sciences, Tomsk Polytechnic University, 634050 Tomsk, Russia
- Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, 751 23 Uppsala, Sweden
- Correspondence: (S.S.); (A.O.)
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