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Yu X, Long Y, Chen B, Tong Y, Shan M, Jia X, Hu C, Liu M, Zhou J, Tang F, Lu H, Chen R, Xu P, Huang W, Ren J, Wan Y, Sun J, Li J, Jin G, Gong L. PD-L1/TLR7 dual-targeting nanobody-drug conjugate mediates potent tumor regression via elevating tumor immunogenicity in a host-expressed PD-L1 bias-dependent way. J Immunother Cancer 2022; 10:jitc-2022-004590. [PMID: 36253000 PMCID: PMC9577932 DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2022-004590] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Various tumors are insensitive to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) establish the link between innate and adaptive immunity, which can assist T-cell activation and serve as promising targets for combination to enhance ICB therapy. Here, we aimed to improve efficacy for anti-programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) therapy by developing a PD-L1/TLR7 dual-targeting nanobody-drug conjugate (NDC), based on the PD-L1 nanobodies and TLR7 agonist we developed. Methods PD-L1 nanobodies were obtained by phage display screening and identified through T-cell activation bioassay, in vivo imaging and quantitative biodistribution study. Immune activation and PD-L1-inducing of TLR7 agonists were evaluated in diverse innate cell models. We constructed PD-L1/TLR7 dual-targeting NDCs by chemically coupling PD-L1 nanobodies and TLR7 agonists. The antitumor effect was evaluated via several murine or humanized solid tumor models. Immunophenotyping, immune cell depletion, tumor rechallenge, RNA sequencing and PD-L1-deficient models were combined to determine the mechanism for NDCs function. The dynamics of the in vivo behaviors of NDCs were assessed based on multiorgan changes in PD-L1 levels. Results The screened PD-L1 nanobodies were characterized as tumor-targeting and alleviated T-cell immunosuppression. The TLR7 agonists induced broad innate immune responses and intratumoral PD-L1 expression on antigen-presenting cells (APCs), and its antitumor effect was dependent on intratumoral delivery. The combination of TLR7 agonists and PD-L1 nanobodies activated both innate and adaptive immunity and upregulated PD-L1-related signaling pathways. After coupling to form dual-targeting NDCs, TLR7 agonists and PD-L1 nanobodies exerted synergistic antitumor effects and safety in either ‘hot’ or ‘cold’ tumor and early or advanced tumor models, reshaped the tumor immune microenvironment and induced antitumor immune memory. CD8+ T cells and natural killer cells were the main effector cells for NDCs to function. NDCs can promote PD-L1 expression on intratumoral APCs and tumor cells, and subsequently achieve targeted enrichment in tumors. Moreover, the efficacy of NDCs is biased toward dependence on host expression of PD-L1. Conclusions The novel PD-L1/TLR7 dual-targeting NDC exhibited potent efficacy against heterogeneous tumors through orchestrating innate and adaptive immunity, which could act as a promising strategy to improve ICB therapy and shows prospects for clinical development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaolu Yu
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yiru Long
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Binfan Chen
- Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Virology of Ministries of Education and Health, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Yongliang Tong
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Mengwen Shan
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China,School of Chinese Materia Medica, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China
| | - Xiaomin Jia
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Chao Hu
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China,Department of Pharmaceutics, Wuya College of Innovation, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang, China
| | - Meng Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Ji Zhou
- International Cancer Center, Nation-Regional Engineering Lab for Synthetic Biology of Medicine, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Shenzhen University Health Science Center, Shenzhen, China
| | - Feng Tang
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Henglei Lu
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Runqiu Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China,Department of Pharmaceutics, Wuya College of Innovation, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang, China
| | - Pan Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Wei Huang
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Jin Ren
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yakun Wan
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Jianhua Sun
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Jia Li
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Guangyi Jin
- International Cancer Center, Nation-Regional Engineering Lab for Synthetic Biology of Medicine, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Shenzhen University Health Science Center, Shenzhen, China
| | - Likun Gong
- State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China,School of Chinese Materia Medica, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China,Zhongshan Institute for Drug Discovery, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhongshan, China
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