The high-grade pulmonary neuroendocrine tumors, small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC), remain among the most deadly malignancies. Therapies that effectively target and kill tumor-initiating cells (TICs) in these cancers should translate to improved patient survival. Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) tumors serve as excellent models to study tumor biology and characterize TICs. Increased expression of delta-like 3 (DLL3) was discovered in SCLC and LCNEC PDX tumors and confirmed in primary SCLC and LCNEC tumors. DLL3 protein is expressed on the surface of tumor cells but not in normal adult tissues. A DLL3-targeted antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), SC16LD6.5, comprised of a humanized anti-DLL3 monoclonal antibody conjugated to a DNA-damaging pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD) dimer toxin, induced durable tumor regression in vivo across multiple PDX models. Serial transplantation experiments executed with limiting dilutions of cells provided functional evidence confirming that the lack of tumor recurrence after SC16LD6.5 exposure resulted from effective targeting of DLL3-expressing TICs. In vivo efficacy correlated with DLL3 expression, and responses were observed in PDX models initiated from patients with both limited and extensive-stage disease and were independent of their sensitivity to standard-of-care chemotherapy regimens. SC16LD6.5 effectively targets and eradicates DLL3-expressing TICs in SCLC and LCNEC PDX tumors and is a promising first-in-class ADC for the treatment of high-grade pulmonary neuroendocrine tumors.

In vivo molecular imaging has a great potential to impact medicine by detecting diseases in early stages (screening), identifying extent of disease, selecting disease- and patient-specific therapeutic treatment (personalized medicine), applying a directed or targeted therapy, and measuring molecular-specific effects of treatment. Current clinical molecular imaging approaches primarily use PET- or SPECT-based techniques. In ongoing preclinical research novel molecular targets of different diseases are identified and, sophisticated and multifunctional contrast agents for imaging these molecular targets are developed along with new technologies and instrumentation for multimodality molecular imaging. Contrast-enhanced molecular ultrasound with molecularly-targeted contrast microbubbles is explored as a clinically translatable molecular imaging strategy for screening, diagnosing, and monitoring diseases at the molecular level. Optical imaging with fluorescent molecular probes and ultrasound imaging with molecularly-targeted microbubbles are attractive strategies since they provide real-time imaging, are relatively inexpensive, produce images with high spatial resolution, and do not involve exposure to ionizing irradiation. Raman spectroscopy/microscopy has emerged as a molecular optical imaging strategy for ultrasensitive detection of multiple biomolecules/biochemicals with both in vivo and ex vivo versatility. Photoacoustic imaging is a hybrid of optical and ultrasound modalities involving optically-excitable molecularly-targeted contrast agents and quantitative detection of resulting oscillatory contrast agent movement with ultrasound. Current preclinical findings and advances in instrumentation such as endoscopes and microcatheters suggest that these molecular imaging modalities have numerous clinical applications and will be translated into clinical use in the near future.

Human MB(KDR) allow in vivo imaging and longitudinal monitoring of VEGFR2 expression in human colon cancer xenografts.

Purpose Detection of pancreatic cancer remains high priority and effective diagnostic tools are needed for clinical applications. Many cancer cells overexpress integrin αvβ6, a cell surface receptor being evaluated as a novel clinical biomarker. Experimental Design To validate this molecular target, several highly stable cystine knot peptides were engineered by directed evolution to bind specifically and with high-affinity (3-6 nM) to integrin αvβ6. The binders don’t cross-react with related integrin αvβ5, integrin α5β1 or tumor-angiogenesis associated integrin, αvβ3. Results Positron emission tomography showed that these disulfide-stabilized peptides rapidly accumulate at tumors expressing integrin αvβ6. Clinically relevant tumor-to-muscle ratios of 7.7 ± 2.4 to 11.3 ± 3.0 were achieved within one hour after radiotracer injection. Minimization of off-target dosing was achieved by reformatting αvβ6-binding activities across various natural and pharmacokinetically-stabilized cystine knot scaffolds with different amino acid content. We demonstrate that a peptide scaffold’s primary sequence directs its pharmacokinetics. Scaffolds with high arginine or glutamic acid content suffered high renal retention of > 75 percent injected dose per gram (%ID/g). Substitution of these amino acids with renally-cleared amino acids, notably serine, led to significant decreases in renal accumulation of < 20 %ID/g 1h post injection (p < 0.05, n=3). Conclusions We have engineered highly stable cystine knot peptides with potent and specific integrin αvβ6 binding activities for cancer detection. Pharmacokinetic engineering of scaffold primary sequence led to significant decreases in off-target radiotracer accumulation. Optimization of binding affinity, specificity, stability and pharmacokinetics will facilitate translation of cystine knots for cancer molecular imaging.

Purpose:To test whether plasmid-binding cationic microbubbles (MBs) enhance ultrasound-mediated gene delivery efficiency relative to control neutral MBs in cell culture and in vivo tumors in mice. Materials and Methods:Animal studies were approved by the institutional animal care committee. Cationic and neutral MBs were characterized in terms of size, charge, circulation time, and DNA binding. Click beetle luciferase (CBLuc) reporter plasmids were mixed with cationic or neutral MBs. The ability of cationic MBs to protect bound plasmids from nuclease degradation was tested by means of a deoxyribonuclease (DNase) protection assay. Relative efficiencies of ultrasound-mediated transfection (ultrasound parameters: 1 MHz, 1 W/cm 2 , 20% duty cycle, 1 minute) of CBLuc to endothelial cells by using cationic, neutral, or no MBs were compared in cell culture. Ultrasound-mediated gene delivery to mouse hind limb tumors was performed in vivo (n = 24) with insonation (1 MHz, 2 W/cm 2 , 50% duty cycle, 5 minutes) after intravenous administration of CBLuc with cationic, neutral, or no MBs. Tumor luciferase activity was assessed by means of serial in vivo bioluminescence imaging and ex vivo analysis. Results were compared by using analysis of variance. Results:Cationic

Disease relapse after treatment is common in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), ovarian cancer (OVCA), and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Therapies that target tumor-initiating cells (TICs) should improve patient survival by eliminating the cells that can drive tumor recurrence and metastasis. We demonstrate that protein tyrosine kinase 7 (PTK7), a highly conserved but catalytically inactive receptor tyrosine kinase in the Wnt signaling pathway, is enriched on TICs in low-passage TNBC, OVCA, and NSCLC patient-derived xenografts (PDXs). To deliver a potent anticancer drug to PTK7-expressing TICs, we generated a targeted antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) composed of a humanized anti-PTK7 monoclonal antibody, a cleavable valine-citrulline-based linker, and Aur0101, an auristatin microtubule inhibitor. The PTK7-targeted ADC induced sustained tumor regressions and outperformed standard-of-care chemotherapy. Moreover, the ADC specifically reduced the frequency of TICs, as determined by serial transplantation experiments. In addition to reducing the TIC frequency, the PTK7-targeted ADC may have additional antitumor mechanisms of action, including the inhibition of angiogenesis and the stimulation of immune cells. Together, these preclinical data demonstrate the potential for the PTK7-targeted ADC to improve the long-term survival of cancer patients.

Waf1/Cip1 induction, and cell cycle arrest. PKCinduced ERK activation was strong and sustained relative to that produced by proliferative signals, and the growth inhibitory effects of PKC agonists were dominant over proliferative events when these opposing stimuli were administered simultaneously. PKC signaling promoted cytoplasmic and nuclear accumulation of ERK activity, whereas growth factor-induced phospho-ERK was localized only in the cytoplasm. Comparison of the effects of PKC agonists that differ in their ability to sustain PKC ␣ activation and growth arrest in IEC-18 cells, together with the use of selective kinase inhibitors, indicated that the length of PKC-mediated cell cycle exit is dictated by the magnitude/duration of input signal (i.e. PKC ␣ activity) and of activation of the ERK cascade. The extent/duration of phospho-ERK nuclear localization may also be important determinants of the duration of PKC agonist-induced growth arrest in this system. Taken together, the data point to PKC ␣ and the Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK cascade as key regulators of cell cycle withdrawal in intestinal epithelial cells.

We reported previously that protein kinase C␣ (PKC␣), a negative regulator of cell growth in the intestinal epithelium, inhibits cyclin D1 translation by inducing hypophosphorylation/activation of the translational repressor 4E-BP1. The current study explores the molecular mechanisms underlying PKC/PKC␣-induced activation of 4E-BP1 in IEC-18 nontransformed rat ileal crypt cells. PKC signaling is shown to promote dephosphorylation of Thr 45 and Ser 64 on 4E-BP1, residues directly involved in its association with eIF4E. Consistent with the known role of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt/mTOR pathway in regulation of 4E-BP1, PKC signaling transiently inhibited PI3K activity and Akt phosphorylation in IEC-18 cells. However, PKC/PKC␣-induced activation of 4E-BP1 was not prevented by constitutively active mutants of PI3K or Akt, indicating that blockade of PI3K/Akt signaling is not the primary effector of 4E-BP1 activation. This idea is supported by the fact that PKC activation did not alter S6 kinase activity in these cells. Further analysis indicated that PKC-mediated 4E-BP1 hypophosphorylation is dependent on the activity of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A). PKC signaling induced an ϳ2-fold increase in PP2A activity, and phosphatase inhibition blocked the effects of PKC agonists on 4E-BP1 phosphorylation and cyclin D1 expression. H 2 O 2 and ceramide, two naturally occurring PKC␣ agonists that promote growth arrest in intestinal cells, activate 4E-BP1 in PKC/PKC␣-dependent manner, supporting the physiological significance of the findings. Together, our studies indicate that activation of PP2A is an important mechanism underlying PKC/ PKC␣-induced inhibition of cap-dependent translation and growth suppression in intestinal epithelial cells. Members of the protein kinase C (PKC)3 family of signal transduction molecules have been implicated in regulation of fundamental cellular processes, including cell growth and cell cycle progression, differentiation, survival/apoptosis, protein translation, membrane trafficking, receptor desensitization, and migration (1-10). Increasing evidence supports a key role for PKC signaling in the maintenance of intestinal homeostasis (1,11,12), and aberrations in PKC expression and function occur early during intestinal tumorigenesis (13). Previous studies from this laboratory have demonstrated that PKC/PKC␣ signaling triggers a program of cell cycle withdrawal in intestinal epithelial cells characterized by rapid down-regulation of cyclin D1, increased expression of Cip/Kip cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors, and activation of the growth suppressor function of members of the pocket protein family (14, 15). Downregulation of cyclin D1 precedes various hallmark events of cell cycle exit, pointing to the importance of regulation of this cyclin in PKC-mediated growth arrest in intestinal epithelial cells.Analysis of the mechanisms underlying PKC/PKC␣-mediated down-regulation of cyclin D1 identified PKC␣ as a negative regulator of cyclin D1 translation (7). PKC/PKC␣ signaling activates t...