On the use of DNA as a linker in antibody-drug conjugates: synthesis, stability and in vitro potency.

Date publication

mai 2020

Journal

Scientific reports

Auteurs

Membres identifiés du Cancéropôle Est :
Dr CIANFERANI Sarah , Dr WAGNER Alain , Dr KOLODYCH Sergii , Dr KONIEV Sasha

Tous les auteurs :
Dovgan I, Ehkirch A, Lehot V, Kuhn I, Koniev O, Kolodych S, Hentz A, Ripoll M, Ursuegui S, Nothisen M, Cianférani S, Wagner A

Lien Pubmed

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32376903

Résumé

Here we present the synthesis and evaluation of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), for which antibody and drug are non-covalently connected using complementary DNA linkers. These ADCs are composed of trastuzumab, an antibody targeting HER2 receptors overexpressed on breast cancer cells, and monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE) as a drug payload. In this new ADC format, trastuzumab conjugated to a 37-mer oligonucleotide (ON) was prepared and hybridized with its complementary ON modified at 5-end with MMAE (cON-MMAE) in order to obtain trastuzumab-DNA-MMAE. As an advantage, the cON-MMAE was completely soluble in water, which decreases overall hydrophobicity of toxic payload, an important characteristic of ADCs. The stability in the human plasma of these non-engineered ON-based linkers was investigated and showed a satisfactory half-life of 5.8 days for the trastuzumab-DNA format. Finally, we investigated the in vitro cytotoxicity profile of both the DNA-linked ADC and the ON-drug conjugates and compared them with classical covalently linked ADC. Interestingly, we found increased cytotoxicity for MMAE compared to cON-MMAE and an EC50 in the nanomolar range for trastuzumab-DNA-MMAE on HER2-positive cells. Although this proved to be less potent than classically linked ADC with picomolar range EC50, the difference in cytotoxicity between naked payload and conjugated payload was significant when an ON linker was used. We also observed an interesting increase in cytotoxicity of trastuzumab-DNA-MMAE on HER2-negative cells. This was attributed to enhanced non-specific interaction triggered by the DNA strand as it could be confirmed using ligand tracer assay.

Référence

Sci Rep. 2020 May 6;10(1):7691