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Li X, Kheirabadi M, Dougherty PG, Kamer KJ, Shen X, Estrella NL, Peddigari S, Pathak A, Blake SL, Sizensky E, Genio CD, Gaur AB, Dhanabal M, Girgenrath M, Sethuraman N, Qian Z. The endosomal escape vehicle platform enhances delivery of oligonucleotides in preclinical models of neuromuscular disorders. Mol Ther Nucleic Acids 2023; 33:273-285. [PMID: 37538053 PMCID: PMC10393622 DOI: 10.1016/j.omtn.2023.06.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2023] [Accepted: 06/26/2023] [Indexed: 08/05/2023]
Abstract
Biological therapeutic agents are highly targeted and potent but limited in their ability to reach intracellular targets. These limitations often necessitate high therapeutic doses and can be associated with less-than-optimal therapeutic activity. One promising solution for therapeutic agent delivery is use of cell-penetrating peptides. Canonical cell-penetrating peptides, however, are limited by low efficiencies of cellular uptake and endosomal escape, minimal proteolytic stability, and toxicity. To overcome these limitations, we designed a family of proprietary cyclic cell-penetrating peptides that form the core of our endosomal escape vehicle technology capable of delivering therapeutic agent-conjugated cargo intracellularly. We demonstrated the therapeutic potential of this endosomal escape vehicle platform in preclinical models of muscular dystrophy with distinct disease etiology. An endosomal escape vehicle-conjugated, splice-modulating oligonucleotide restored dystrophin protein expression in striated muscles in the mdx mouse, a model for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Furthermore, another endosomal escape vehicle-conjugated, sterically blocking oligonucleotide led to knockdown of aberrant transcript expression levels in facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy patient-derived skeletal muscle cells. These findings suggest a significant therapeutic potential of our endosomal escape vehicle conjugated oligonucleotides for targeted upregulation and downregulation of gene expression in neuromuscular diseases, with possible broader application of this platform for delivery of intracellular biological agents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiang Li
- Entrada Therapeutics, One Design Center Place, Suite 17-500, Boston, MA 02210, USA
| | - Mahboubeh Kheirabadi
- Entrada Therapeutics, One Design Center Place, Suite 17-500, Boston, MA 02210, USA
| | - Patrick G. Dougherty
- Entrada Therapeutics, One Design Center Place, Suite 17-500, Boston, MA 02210, USA
| | - Kimberli J. Kamer
- Entrada Therapeutics, One Design Center Place, Suite 17-500, Boston, MA 02210, USA
| | - Xiulong Shen
- Entrada Therapeutics, One Design Center Place, Suite 17-500, Boston, MA 02210, USA
| | - Nelsa L. Estrella
- Entrada Therapeutics, One Design Center Place, Suite 17-500, Boston, MA 02210, USA
| | - Suresh Peddigari
- Entrada Therapeutics, One Design Center Place, Suite 17-500, Boston, MA 02210, USA
| | - Anushree Pathak
- Entrada Therapeutics, One Design Center Place, Suite 17-500, Boston, MA 02210, USA
| | - Sara L. Blake
- Entrada Therapeutics, One Design Center Place, Suite 17-500, Boston, MA 02210, USA
| | - Emmanuelle Sizensky
- Entrada Therapeutics, One Design Center Place, Suite 17-500, Boston, MA 02210, USA
| | - Carmen del Genio
- Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, 1 Medical Center Drive, Lebanon, NH 03756, USA
| | - Arti B. Gaur
- Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, 1 Medical Center Drive, Lebanon, NH 03756, USA
| | - Mohanraj Dhanabal
- Entrada Therapeutics, One Design Center Place, Suite 17-500, Boston, MA 02210, USA
| | - Mahasweta Girgenrath
- Entrada Therapeutics, One Design Center Place, Suite 17-500, Boston, MA 02210, USA
| | - Natarajan Sethuraman
- Entrada Therapeutics, One Design Center Place, Suite 17-500, Boston, MA 02210, USA
| | - Ziqing Qian
- Entrada Therapeutics, One Design Center Place, Suite 17-500, Boston, MA 02210, USA
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Come JH, Collier PN, Henderson JA, Pierce AC, Davies RJ, Le Tiran A, O'Dowd H, Bandarage UK, Cao J, Deininger D, Grey R, Krueger EB, Lowe DB, Liang J, Liao Y, Messersmith D, Nanthakumar S, Sizensky E, Wang J, Xu J, Chin EY, Damagnez V, Doran JD, Dworakowski W, Griffith JP, Jacobs MD, Khare-Pandit S, Mahajan S, Moody CS, Aronov AM. Design and Synthesis of a Novel Series of Orally Bioavailable, CNS-Penetrant, Isoform Selective Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase γ (PI3Kγ) Inhibitors with Potential for the Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). J Med Chem 2018; 61:5245-5256. [PMID: 29847724 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.8b00085] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
The lipid kinase phosphoinositide 3-kinase γ (PI3Kγ) has attracted attention as a potential target to treat a variety of autoimmune disorders, including multiple sclerosis, due to its role in immune modulation and microglial activation. By minimizing the number of hydrogen bond donors while targeting a previously uncovered selectivity pocket adjacent to the ATP binding site of PI3Kγ, we discovered a series of azaisoindolinones as selective, brain penetrant inhibitors of PI3Kγ. This ultimately led to the discovery of 16, an orally bioavailable compound that showed efficacy in murine experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a preclinical model of multiple sclerosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jon H Come
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Philip N Collier
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - James A Henderson
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Albert C Pierce
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Robert J Davies
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Arnaud Le Tiran
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Hardwin O'Dowd
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Upul K Bandarage
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Jingrong Cao
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - David Deininger
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Ron Grey
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Elaine B Krueger
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Derek B Lowe
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Jianglin Liang
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Yusheng Liao
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - David Messersmith
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Suganthi Nanthakumar
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Emmanuelle Sizensky
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Jian Wang
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Jinwang Xu
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Elaine Y Chin
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Veronique Damagnez
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - John D Doran
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Wojciech Dworakowski
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - James P Griffith
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Marc D Jacobs
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Suvarna Khare-Pandit
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Sudipta Mahajan
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Cameron S Moody
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
| | - Alex M Aronov
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue , Boston , Massachusetts 02210 , United States
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Grillot AL, Le Tiran A, Shannon D, Krueger E, Liao Y, O'Dowd H, Tang Q, Ronkin S, Wang T, Waal N, Li P, Lauffer D, Sizensky E, Tanoury J, Perola E, Grossman TH, Doyle T, Hanzelka B, Jones S, Dixit V, Ewing N, Liao S, Boucher B, Jacobs M, Bennani Y, Charifson PS. Second-generation antibacterial benzimidazole ureas: discovery of a preclinical candidate with reduced metabolic liability. J Med Chem 2014; 57:8792-816. [PMID: 25317480 DOI: 10.1021/jm500563g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Compound 3 is a potent aminobenzimidazole urea with broad-spectrum Gram-positive antibacterial activity resulting from dual inhibition of bacterial gyrase (GyrB) and topoisomerase IV (ParE), and it demonstrates efficacy in rodent models of bacterial infection. Preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies showed that compound 3 covalently labels liver proteins, presumably via formation of a reactive metabolite, and hence presented a potential safety liability. The urea moiety in compound 3 was identified as being potentially responsible for reactive metabolite formation, but its replacement resulted in loss of antibacterial activity and/or oral exposure due to poor physicochemical parameters. To identify second-generation aminobenzimidazole ureas devoid of reactive metabolite formation potential, we implemented a metabolic shift strategy, which focused on shifting metabolism away from the urea moiety by introducing metabolic soft spots elsewhere in the molecule. Aminobenzimidazole urea 34, identified through this strategy, exhibits similar antibacterial activity as that of 3 and did not label liver proteins in vivo, indicating reduced/no potential for reactive metabolite formation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne-Laure Grillot
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated , 50 Northern Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02210, United States
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