Conditionally replicative adenoviruses represent an innovative group of anticancer agents designed to destroy these cells by replication and lysis. A major problem associated with of the use of adenoviral vectors in gene therapy is its high liver uptake and lack of tumor selectivity upon systemic administration. To improve the efficacy of CRAds as anticancer agents, their infection efficiency on CAR-deficient tumor cells could be enhanced their by redirecting viral entry via a CAR-independent pathway. To redirect the entry pathway of adenoviruses and enhance their infectivity and specificity, two general strategies are being used. In the first strategy, the adenovirus genome is changed to alter the binding specificity of the viral capsid. In the second strategy, a two-component targeted adenovirus is created by binding of proteins with specific affinity for cancer cells onto the viral capsid. Despite effective targeting and tumor eradication in vitro and in mouse models, the results from systemic administration of targeted CrAds is limited. In addition, clinical effects of CrAds are disappointing up till now. Therefore, combination therapies in which targeted CrAds are combined with other types of therapy are being investigated.
Conditionally replicative adenoviruses represent an innovative group of anticancer agents designed to destroy these cells by replication and lysis. A major problem associated with of the use of adenoviral vectors in gene therapy is its high liver uptake and lack of tumor selectivity upon systemic administration. To improve the efficacy of CRAds as anticancer agents, their infection efficiency on CAR-deficient tumor cells could be enhanced their by redirecting viral entry via a CAR-independent pathway. To redirect the entry pathway of adenoviruses and enhance their infectivity and specificity, two general strategies are being used. In the first strategy, the adenovirus genome is changed to alter the binding specificity of the viral capsid. In the second strategy, a two-component targeted adenovirus is created by binding of proteins with specific affinity for cancer cells onto the viral capsid. Despite effective targeting and tumor eradication in vitro and in mouse models, the results from systemic administration of targeted CrAds is limited. In addition, clinical effects of CrAds are disappointing up till now. Therefore, combination therapies in which targeted CrAds are combined with other types of therapy are being investigated.
New targets for cancer treatment frequently emerge in literature, but the thorough target validation required to consider these targets for a drug discovery program is often lacking. In pharmacological or genetic perturbation studies using complex biological assays, undesired off-target effects cannot be easily distinguished from the intended mode of action at the desired target. This is especially evident in cancer drug development where it is important to discriminate on-target effects on cell viability from off-target effects resulting in non-specific loss of cellular fitness. Neglecting the possibility of being deceived by off-target effects can have tremendous scientific and financial impact on a drug discovery program. Ideally confidence in a preclinical drug target and a modulating compound is boosted in an early stage by more extensive analysis and validation of the actual drug-target relationship. Rescue of a disease-relevant phenotype by genetic restoration of a target mutation is a gold standard approach in drug discovery by which target validation can be achieved. We aim to follow this approach targeting the BRAF V600E mutation in a number of well described melanoma lines as well as the MAP2K1 Q56P mutation in non-small cell lung cancer cell line H1437. Target validation for both BRAF and MAP2K1 will be addressed by assessing viability, phenotypic changes and sensitivity to compound modulation upon CRISPR/Cas9 repair of the target mutation or by exogenous re-expression of the wildtype variant. Compounds tested will be Vemurafenib for BRAF and Trametinib for MAP2K1. Further investigation into target validity will be done using a physiologically relevant 3D spheroid based co-culture system. Mimicking the tumor microenvironment increases the knowledge about “drug-ability” of a target and sustainability of the target modulation at an early time point in the development process. Such early in-depth validation of the relationship between a compound and the drug target is vital to mitigate the risk of failure at later steps of drug development. Citation Format: Lieke Geerts, Laure Grandmoursel, Jamil Aarbiou, Jeroen DeGroot, Julia Schüler, Ian Waddell, Anne-Marie Zuurmond. Validation of the interaction between a candidate compound and the intended drug target by a phenotypic rescue approach [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1265.
New targets for cancer treatment frequently emerge in literature, but the thorough target validation required to consider these targets for a drug discovery program is often lacking. In pharmacological or genetic perturbation studies using complex biological assays, undesired off-target effects cannot be easily distinguished from the intended mode of action at the desired target. This is especially evident in cancer drug development where it is important to discriminate on-target effects on cell viability from off-target effects resulting in non-specific loss of cellular fitness. Neglecting the possibility of being deceived by off-target effects can have tremendous scientific and financial impact on a drug discovery program. Ideally, confidence in a preclinical drug target and a modulating compound is boosted in an early stage by more extensive analysis and validation of the actual drug-target relationship. Rescue of a disease-relevant phenotype by genetic restoration of a target mutation is a gold standard approach in drug discovery by which target validation can be achieved. We aim to follow this approach targeting the BRAF V600E mutation in a number of well described melanoma lines as well as the MAP2K1 Q56P mutation in the non-small cell lung cancer cell line H1437. Target validation for both BRAF and MAP2K1 will be addressed by assessing viability, phenotypic changes and sensitivity to compound modulation upon CRISPR/Cas9 repair of the target mutation or by exogenous re-expression of the wild type variant. Compounds tested will be Vemurafenib for BRAF and Trametinib for MAP2K1. Further investigation into target validity will be done using a physiologically relevant 3D spheroid based co-culture system. Mimicking the tumor microenvironment increases the knowledge about “drug-ability” of a target and sustainability of the target modulation at an early time point in the development process. Such early in-depth validation of the relationship between a compound and the drug target is vital to mitigate the risk of failure at later steps of drug development. Citation Format: Laure Grandmoursel, Lieke Geerts, Geraldine Servant, Miranda van der Ham, Armin Maier, Jamil Aarbiou, Marijn Vlaming, Jeroen DeGroot, Julia Schuler, Ian Waddell, Anne-Marie Zuurmond. Validation of the interaction between a candidate compound and the intended drug target by a phenotypic rescue approach [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2019 Oct 26-30; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2019;18(12 Suppl):Abstract nr C021. doi:10.1158/1535-7163.TARG-19-C021
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