The ability to monitor the efficacy of an anticancer treatment in real time can have a critical effect on the outcome. Currently, clinical readouts of efficacy rely on indirect or anatomic measurements, which occur over prolonged time scales postchemotherapy or postimmunotherapy and may not be concordant with the actual effect. Here we describe the biology-inspired engineering of a simple 2-in-1 reporter nanoparticle that not only delivers a cytotoxic or an immunotherapy payload to the tumor but also reports back on the efficacy in real time. The reporter nanoparticles are engineered from a novel two-staged stimuli-responsive polymeric material with an optimal ratio of an enzyme-cleavable drug or immunotherapy (effector elements) and a drug function-activatable reporter element. The spatiotemporally constrained delivery of the effector and the reporter elements in a single nanoparticle produces maximum signal enhancement due to the availability of the reporter element in the same cell as the drug, thereby effectively capturing the temporal apoptosis process. Using chemotherapy-sensitive and chemotherapy-resistant tumors in vivo, we show that the reporter nanoparticles can provide a real-time noninvasive readout of tumor response to chemotherapy. The reporter nanoparticle can also monitor the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibition in melanoma. The self-reporting capability, for the first time to our knowledge, captures an anticancer nanoparticle in action in vivo.T he failure of anticancer therapy is a major cause of mortality (1). Although the current dogma underlying resistance is based on the Darwinian selection of mutations acquired over time under chemotherapy pressure, emerging evidence indicates that anticancer drugs can be rendered ineffective early on by intrinsic or adaptive resistance as a function of tumor heterogeneity (2-4). For example, response rates to first-line chemotherapy treatments in metastatic breast cancer patients range from a dismal 30% to 70%, and patients with disease progression need to be switched to a different drug (5). Similarly, about 40-60% of patients with a wild-type KRAS do not respond to cetuximab (6). The ability to detect early whether a treatment is working or not and to switch, if necessary, to a regimen that is effective can have a significant effect on the outcome as well as quality of life (7,8).Currently, tumor response to therapy is determined using techniques for direct anatomical measurements, such as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging, or indirectly using positron emission tomography with 2-[fluorine-18]fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose (FDG-PET) to quantify metabolic activity. However, these techniques lack the sensitivity or specificity to enable very early response assessment, and often, clinicopathological and metabolic readouts can be discordant (5, 9, 10). In the case of immunotherapy, for example, a productive immune response (T cell infiltration) and the unimpeded growth of the tumor will both be manifest as progression on the conventional ...

The development of resistance is the major cause of mortality in cancer. Combination chemotherapy is used clinically to reduce the probability of evolution of resistance. A similar trend toward the use of combinations of drugs is also emerging in the application of cancer nanomedicine. However, should a combination of two drugs be delivered from a single nanoparticle or should they be delivered in two different nanoparticles for maximal efficacy? We explored these questions in the context of adaptive resistance, which emerges as a phenotypic response of cancer cells to chemotherapy. We studied the phenotypic dynamics of breast cancer cells under cytotoxic chemotherapeutic stress and analyzed the data using a phenomenological mathematical model. We demonstrate that cancer cells can develop adaptive resistance by entering into a predetermined transitional trajectory that leads to phenocopies of inherently chemoresistant cancer cells. Disrupting this deterministic program requires a unique combination of inhibitors and cytotoxic agents. Using two such combinations, we demonstrate that a 2-in-1 nanomedicine can induce greater antitumor efficacy by ensuring that the origins of adaptive resistance are terminated by deterministic spatially constrained delivery of both drugs to the target cells. In contrast, a combination of free-form drugs or two nanoparticles, each carrying a single payload, is less effective, arising from a stochastic distribution to cells. These findings suggest that 2-in-1 nanomedicines could emerge as an important strategy for targeting adaptive resistance, resulting in increased antitumor efficacy.

CKD is the gradual, asymptomatic loss of kidney function, but current tests only identify CKD when significant loss has already happened. Several potential biomarkers of CKD have been reported, but none have been approved for preclinical or clinical use. Using RNA sequencing in a mouse model of folic acidinduced nephropathy, we identified ten genes that track kidney fibrosis development, the common pathologic finding in patients with CKD. The gene expression of all ten candidates was confirmed to be significantly higher (approximately ten-to 150-fold) in three well established, mechanistically distinct mouse models of kidney fibrosis than in models of nonfibrotic AKI. Protein expression of these genes was also high in the folic acid model and in patients with biopsy-proven kidney fibrosis. mRNA expression of the ten genes increased with increasing severity of kidney fibrosis, decreased in response to therapeutic intervention, and increased only modestly (approximately two-to five-fold) with liver fibrosis in mice and humans, demonstrating specificity for kidney fibrosis. Using targeted selected reaction monitoring mass spectrometry, we detected three of the ten candidates in human urine: cadherin 11 (CDH11), macrophage mannose receptor C1 (MRC1), and phospholipid transfer protein (PLTP). Furthermore, urinary levels of each of these three proteins distinguished patients with CKD (n=53) from healthy individuals (n=53; P,0.05). In summary, we report the identification of urinary CDH11, MRC1, and PLTP as novel noninvasive biomarkers of CKD.

The centrality of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) in cancer etiology is well established, but clinical translation of PI3K inhibitors has been limited by feedback signaling, suboptimal intra-tumoral concentration and an insulin resistance ‘class effect’. The current study was designed to explore the use of supramolecular nanochemistry for targeting PI3K to enhance antitumor efficacy and potentially overcome these limitations. PI3K inhibitor structures were rationally modified using a cholesterol-based derivative, facilitating supramolecular nanoassembly with L-α-phosphatidylcholine and DSPE-PEG. The supramolecular nanoparticles that were assembled were physicochemically characterized and functionally evaluated in vitro. Antitumor efficacy was quantified in vivo using 4T1 breast cancer and K-RasLSL/+/Ptenfl/fl ovarian cancer models, with effects on glucose homeostasis evaluated using an insulin sensitivity test. The use of PI103 and PI828 as surrogate molecules to engineer the supramolecular nanoparticles highlighted the need to keep design principles in perspective; specifically, potency of the active molecule and the linker chemistry were critical principles for efficacy, similar to antibody-drug conjugates. We found that the supramolecular nanoparticles exerted a temporally-sustained inhibition of phosphorylation of Akt, mTOR, S6K and 4EBP in vivo. These effects were associated with increased antitumor efficacy and survival as compared with PI103 and PI828. Efficacy was further increased by decorating the nanoparticle surface with tumor-homing peptides. Notably, the use of supramolecular nanoparticles abrogated the insulin resistance that has been associated widely with other PI3K inhibitors. This study provides a preclinical foundation for the use of supramolecular nanochemistry to overcome current challenges associated with PI3K inhibitors, offering a paradigm for extension to other molecularly targeted therapeutics being explored for cancer treatment.