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Wang Z, Fan X, Mu G, Zhao X, Wang Q, Wang J, Tang X. Cathepsin B-activatable cyclic antisense oligonucleotides for cell-specific target gene knockdown in vitro and in vivo. Mol Ther Nucleic Acids 2023; 33:548-558. [PMID: 37588686 PMCID: PMC10425675 DOI: 10.1016/j.omtn.2023.07.022] [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] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2022] [Accepted: 07/20/2023] [Indexed: 08/18/2023]
Abstract
Trigger-activatable antisense oligonucleotides have been widely applied to regulate gene function. Among them, caged cyclic antisense oligonucleotides (cASOs) maintain a specific topology that temporarily inhibits their interaction with target genes. By inserting linkers that respond to cell-specific endogenous stimuli, they can be powerful tools and potential therapeutic agents for specific types of cancer cells with low off-target effects on normal cells. Here, we developed enzyme-activatable cASOs by tethering two terminals of linear antisense oligonucleotides through a cathepsin B (CB) substrate peptide (Gly-Phe-Leu-Gly [GFLG]), which could be efficiently uncaged by CB. CB-activatable cASOs were used to successfully knock down two disease-related endogenous genes in CB-abundant PC-3 tumor cells at the mRNA and protein levels but had much less effect on gene knockdown in CB-deficient human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVECs). In addition, reduced nonspecific immunostimulation was found using cASOs compared with their linear counterparts. Further in vivo studies indicated that CB-activatable cASOs showed effective tumor inhibition in PC-3 tumor model mice through downregulation of translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) protein in tumors. This study applies endogenous enzyme-activatable cASOs for antitumor therapy in tumor model mice, which demonstrates a promising stimulus-responsive cASO strategy for cell-specific gene knockdown upon endogenous activation and ASO prodrug development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhongyu Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chemical Biology Center, Peking University, No. 38, Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, People’s Republic of China
| | - Xinli Fan
- State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chemical Biology Center, Peking University, No. 38, Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, People’s Republic of China
| | - Guanqun Mu
- State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chemical Biology Center, Peking University, No. 38, Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, People’s Republic of China
| | - Xiaoran Zhao
- State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chemical Biology Center, Peking University, No. 38, Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, People’s Republic of China
| | - Qian Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chemical Biology Center, Peking University, No. 38, Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, People’s Republic of China
| | - Jing Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chemical Biology Center, Peking University, No. 38, Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, People’s Republic of China
| | - Xinjing Tang
- State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chemical Biology Center, Peking University, No. 38, Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, People’s Republic of China
- State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023, People’s Republic of China
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