A quaternary ammonium-based drug-linker has been developed to expand the scope of antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) payloads to include tertiary amines, a functional group commonly present in biologically active compounds. The linker strategy was exemplified with a b-glucuronidase-cleavable auristatin E construct. The drug-linker was found to efficiently release free auristatin E (AE) in the presence of b-glucuronidase and provide ADCs that were highly stable in plasma. Anti-CD30 conjugates comprised of the glucuronide-AE linker were potent and immunologically specific in vitro and in vivo, displaying pharmacologic properties comparable with a carbamate-linked glucuronide-monomethylauristatin E control. The quaternary ammonium linker was then applied to a tubulysin antimitotic drug that contained an N-terminal tertiary amine that was important for activity. A glucuronide-tubulysin quaternary ammonium linker was synthesized and evaluated as an ADC payload, in which the resulting conjugates were found to be potent and immunologically specific in vitro, and displayed a high level of activity in a Hodgkin lymphoma xenograft. Furthermore, the results were superior to those obtained with a related tubulysin derivative containing a secondary amine N-terminus for conjugation using previously known linker technology. The quaternary ammonium linker represents a significant advance in linker technology, enabling stable conjugation of payloads with tertiary amine residues.Mol Cancer Ther; 15(5); 938-45. Ó2016 AACR.
Although antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) find increasing applications in cancer treatment, or treatment-emergent resistance mechanisms may impair clinical benefit. Two resistance mechanisms that emerge under prolonged exposure include upregulation of transporter proteins that confer multidrug resistance (MDR) and loss of cognate antigen expression. New technologies that circumvent these resistance mechanisms may serve to extend the utility of next-generation ADCs. Recently, we developed the quaternary ammonium linker system to expand the scope of conjugatable payloads to include tertiary amines and applied the linker to tubulysins, a highly potent class of tubulin binders that maintain activity in MDR cell lines. In this work, tubulysin M, which contains an unstable acetate susceptible to enzymatic hydrolysis, and two stabilized tubulysin analogues were prepared as quaternary ammonium-linked glucuronide-linkers and assessed as ADC payloads in preclinical models. The conjugates were potent across a panel of cancer cell lines and active in tumor xenografts, including those displaying the MDR phenotype. The ADCs also demonstrated potent bystander activity in a coculture model comprised of a mixture of antigen-positive and -negative cell lines, and in an antigen-heterogeneous tumor model. Thus, the glucuronide-tubulysin drug-linkers represent a promising ADC payload class, combining conjugate potency in the presence of the MDR phenotype and robust activity in models of tumor heterogeneity in a structure-dependent manner. .
Tubulysins have emerged in recent years as a compelling drug class for delivery to tumor cells via antibodies. The ability of this drug class to exert bystander activity while retaining potency against multidrug‐resistant cell lines differentiates them from other microtubule‐disrupting agents. Tubulysin M, a synthetic analogue, has proven to be active and well tolerated as an antibody‐drug conjugate (ADC) payload, but has the liability of being susceptible to acetate hydrolysis at the C11 position, leading to attenuated potency. In this work, we examine the ability of the drug‐linker and conjugation site to preserve acetate stability. Our findings show that, in contrast to a more conventional protease‐cleavable dipeptide linker, the β‐glucuronidase‐cleavable glucuronide linker protects against acetate hydrolysis and improves ADC activity in vivo. In addition, site‐specific conjugation can positively impact both acetate stability and in vivo activity. Together, these findings provide the basis for a highly optimized delivery strategy for tubulysin M.
Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and aptamers are compelling building blocks for analytical assays with desired attributes of selectivity and sensitivity and may theoretically form the basis of instrument-free color-changing assays for any target against which a DNA aptamer has been selected. However, assays for proteins based on these components may be subject to significant interferences from the interaction of proteins with nanoparticles. We found that for three representative protein/aptamer systems—thrombin, apolipoprotein E, and platelet-derived growth factor—pH-dependent aggregation occurred, even in the absence of the aptamer, to differing extents. This effect is most pronounced when proteins display net surface charge (i.e., when pH < pI) but can even be observed at pH = pI when the protein retains regions of positive charge. These interactions of AuNPs and cationic regions on proteins may present an important limitation on the development of AuNP-based analytical assays.
SGN-CD228A is an investigational antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) directed to melanotransferrin (CD228, MELTF, MFI2, p97), a cell-surface protein first identified in melanoma. SGN-CD228A consists of a humanized antibody, hL49, with high specificity and affinity for CD228 that is stably conjugated to 8 molecules of the clinically validated microtubule-disrupting agent monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE) via a novel glucuronide linker. We performed comprehensive immunohistochemical studies, which corroborated published RNA-seq data and confirmed low CD228 expression in normal tissues and high expression in several cancers, including melanoma, squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), colorectal cancer, and pancreatic cancer. SGN-CD228A was efficiently internalized in various tumor cell types, and its cytotoxic activity was dependent on CD228 expression and internalization and intrinsic sensitivity to the MMAE payload. Compared to the valine-citrulline dipeptide linker, the novel glucuronide linker increased the cellular retention of MMAE in vitro and conferred improved antitumor activity against melanoma cell lines in vitro and in vivo. Additionally, SGN-CD228A was active across melanoma, TNBC, and NSCLC cell line- and patient-derived xenograft models with heterogeneous antigen expression. In vivo, CD228 expression was important for response to SGN-CD228A but was not well-correlated across all tumor types, suggesting that other factors associated with ADC activity are important. Overall, SGN-CD228A is a CD228-directed, investigational ADC that employs innovative technology and has compelling preclinical antitumor activity. SGN-CD228A is being investigated in an ongoing Phase I clinical trial (NCT04042480) in patients with advanced solid tumors.
Background: Tucatinib is an orally administered, reversible, highly specific HER2 tyrosine kinase inhibitor recently approved by the FDA in combination with trastuzumab and capecitabine for adult patients with advanced unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer (mBC), including patients with brain metastases, that have failed at least one anti-HER2 regimen in the metastatic setting. In a phase IB clinical trial, tucatinib in combination with the HER2-targeted antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) was well tolerated and demonstrated activity in heavily pre-pretreated patients with HER2-positive mBC (NCT01983501; Borges VF et al., 2018). We previously presented preclinical data that tucatinib increases the activity of trastuzumab-derived ADCs in HER2-positive breast cancer models. Here, we provide mechanistic insight that tucatinib potentiates the activity of T-DM1 by modulating HER2 protein dynamics and facilitating increased cytotoxic maytansinoid drug delivery. Methods: To assess changes to HER2 protein levels upon treatment with tucatinib, HER2-amplified breast cancer cell lines were analyzed by Western blot and quantitative FACS (qFACS). To probe the dynamics of HER2 at the cell surface upon binding to antibody therapeutics, SK-BR-3 cells were incubated with fluorescently labeled trastuzumab to mark HER2 at the cell surface. Cells were imaged over 72 hours to observe the internalization of surface-bound antibody. Concurrent experiments were conducted with trastuzumab labeled with QF01, a quenched fluor which fluoresces only upon lysosomal processing and can serve as a proxy for antibody catabolism. To directly measure the rates of ADC catabolism, lysates were generated from BT-474 cells treated with T-DM1 in the presence or absence of tucatinib over a 72 hour time course, and were analyzed by mass spectrometry for the T-DM1 adduct, Lys-MCC-DM1. Results: In HER2-amplified breast cancer cell lines, treatment with tucatinib increased overall and cell membrane-localized HER2 levels. As demonstrated by internalization assays, tucatinib had an initial effect that increased the dwell time of HER2 at the cell surface of SK-BR-3 cells. At later timepoints, HER2 bound to trastuzumab was internalized and directed towards lysosomes. These data were supported by parallel intracellular Lys-MCC-DM1 measurements, which demonstrated increased concentration of the adduct when TDM-1 was administered in combination with tucatinib. These data provide a mechanistic rationale as to why the co-administration of tucatinib with T-DM1 in vitro was synergistic by isobologram analysis, and why the combination of tucatinib with T-DM1 was more effective in vivo than either single agent alone in BT-474 xenografts and in PDX models tested, producing a higher proportion of partial or complete tumor regressions. Conclusions: The described preclinical in vitro and in vivo data of simultaneous dual HER2 inhibition with tucatinib and T-DM1, along with the results of the phase IB/2 clinical trial demonstrating preliminary safety and efficacy of the combination, warrant further clinical development of tucatinib in combination with T-DM1. These results also support the evaluation of tucatinib in combination with other HER2-targeted ADCs in patients with HER2-positive mBC. Citation Format: Anita Kulukian, Janelle Taylor, Nishi Jain, Devra Olson, Margo Zaval, Robert Thurman, Shawna Hengel, Lauren Farr, Thomas Pires, Scott R. Peterson. Tucatinib potentiates the activity of the antibody-drug conjugate T-DM1 in preclinical models of HER2-positive breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Virtual Symposium; 2020 Dec 8-11; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(4 Suppl):Abstract nr PS10-08.
While antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) find increasing application in cancer treatment regimens, de novo or treatment-emergent resistance mechanisms could impair clinical benefit. Two resistance mechanisms that emerge under continuous ADC exposure in vitro include upregulation of transporters that confer multidrug resistance (MDR+) and loss of cognate antigen expression. New technologies that circumvent these resistance mechanisms may serve to extend the utility of next generation ADCs. Recently, we developed the quaternary ammonium linker system to expand the scope of conjugatable payloads to include tertiary amine-containing compounds and applied the linker to tubulysins, a highly potent class of microtubule disrupting agents that maintain activity in MDR+ cell lines. Quaternary ammonium-linked glucuronide-tubulysin drug-linkers were synthesized and evaluated as ADCs. The resulting conjugates were potent and immunologically specific across a panel of cancer cell lines, including those displaying the MDR phenotype. The ADCs also demonstrate potent bystander activity in a co-culture model containing a mixture of antigen-positive and -negative cell lines. Incorporation of a PEG12 side chain in the linker enabled loading at 8-drugs/Ab for increased in vivo potency while maintaining suitable ADC pharmacokinetic properties. In vivo, the glucuronide-tubulysin conjugates displayed activity in MDR+ xenograft models and bystander activity in an admixed Ag+/Ag- heterogeneous tumor model. Thus, the glucuronide-tubulysin drug-linkers represent a promising new payload for ADCs, combining conjugate potency in the presence of the MDR phenotype with robust activity in models of tumor antigen heterogeneity. Citation Format: Patrick J. Burke, Joseph Z. Hamilton, Joshua H. Hunter, Julia H. Cochran, Thomas A. Pires, Christopher I. Leiske, Kim K. Emmerton, Peter D. Senter, Robert P. Lyon, Scott C. Jeffrey. Antibody-drug conjugates containing glucuronide-tubulysin payloads display activity in MDR+ and heterogeneous tumor models [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 56. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-56
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