Targeting to Endothelial Cells Augments the Protective Effect of Novel Dual Bioactive Antioxidant/Anti-Inflammatory Nanoparticles

Oxidative stress and inflammation are intertwined contributors to numerous acute vascular pathologies. A novel dual bioactive nanoparticle with antioxidant/anti-inflammatory properties was developed based on the interactions of tocopherol phosphate and the manganese porphyrin SOD mimetic, MnTMPyP. The size and drug incorporation efficiency were shown to be dependent on the amount of MnTMPyP added as well as the choice of surfactant. MnTMPyP was shown to retain its SOD-like activity while in intact particles and to release in a slow and controlled manner. Conjugation of anti-PECAM antibody to the nanoparticles provided endothelial targeting and potentiated nanoparticle-mediated suppression of inflammatory activation of these cells manifested by expression of VCAM, E-selectin, and IL-8. This nanoparticle technology may find applicability with drug combinations relevant for other pathologies

Site-Specific Modification of Single-Chain Antibody Fragments for Bioconjugation and Vascular Immunotargeting

The conjugation of antibodies to drugs and drug carriers improves delivery to target tissues. Widespread implementation and effective translation of this pharmacologic strategy awaits the development of affinity ligands capable of a defined degree of modification and highly efficient bioconjugation without loss of affinity. To date, such ligands are lacking for the targeting of therapeutics to vascular endothelial cells. To enable site-specific, click-chemistry conjugation to therapeutic cargo, we used the bacterial transpeptidase, sortase A, to attach short azidolysine containing peptides to three endothelial-specific single chain antibody fragments (scFv). While direct fusion of a recognition motif (sortag) to the scFv C-terminus generally resulted in low levels of sortase-mediated modification, improved reaction efficiency was observed for one protein, in which two amino acids had been introduced during cloning. This prompted insertion of a short, semi-rigid linker between scFv and sortag. The linker significantly enhanced modification of all three proteins, to the extent that unmodified scFv could no longer be detected. As proof of principle, purified, azide-modified scFv was conjugated to the antioxidant enzyme, catalase, resulting in robust endothelial targeting of functional cargo <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i>

Vascular Immunotargeting to Endothelial Determinant ICAM-1 Enables Optimal Partnering of Recombinant scFv-Thrombomodulin Fusion with Endogenous Cofactor

<div><p>The use of targeted therapeutics to replenish pathologically deficient proteins on the luminal endothelial membrane has the potential to revolutionize emergency and cardiovascular medicine. Untargeted recombinant proteins, like activated protein C (APC) and thrombomodulin (TM), have demonstrated beneficial effects in acute vascular disorders, but have failed to have a major impact on clinical care. We recently reported that TM fused with an scFv antibody fragment to platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 (PECAM-1) exerts therapeutic effects superior to untargeted TM. PECAM-1 is localized to cell-cell junctions, however, whereas the endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR), the key co-factor of TM/APC, is exposed in the apical membrane. Here we tested whether anchoring TM to the intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM-1) favors scFv/TM collaboration with EPCR. Indeed: i) endothelial targeting scFv/TM to ICAM-1 provides ∼15-fold greater activation of protein C than its PECAM-targeted counterpart; ii) blocking EPCR reduces protein C activation by scFv/TM anchored to endothelial ICAM-1, but not PECAM-1; and iii) anti-ICAM scFv/TM fusion provides more profound anti-inflammatory effects than anti-PECAM scFv/TM in a mouse model of acute lung injury. These findings, obtained using new translational constructs, emphasize the importance of targeting protein therapeutics to the proper surface determinant, in order to optimize their microenvironment and beneficial effects.</p></div

Collaborative enhancement binding of anti-muPECAM-1 [125I]-mAb in purified muPECAM.

<p>Collaborative enhancement binding of anti-muPECAM-1 [125I]-mAb in purified muPECAM.</p

APC generation by TM fusion proteins on non-endothelial REN cells with and without EPCR expression.

<p>(a) anti-PECAM scFv/TM and anti-ICAM scFv/TM activate protein C while bound to PECAM and ICAM-expressing cells, respectively. Minimal APC is generated on wild type REN cells, presumably due to lack of binding. (b) A ∼4-fold increase in APC generation is seen when PECAM and ICAM-targeted TM fusion proteins are anchored to cells which stably express mouse EPCR (i.e. REN-PECAM-EPCR and REN-ICAM-EPCR cells), as compared to EPCR-negative counterparts. All experiments were done in triplicate. Data shown are mean ± SD.</p

Vascular Accessibility of Endothelial Targeted Ferritin Nanoparticles

Targeting nanocarriers to the endothelium, using affinity ligands to cell adhesion molecules such as ICAM-1 and PECAM-1, holds promise to improve the pharmacotherapy of many disease conditions. This approach capitalizes on the observation that antibody-targeted carriers of 100 nm and above accumulate in the pulmonary vasculature more effectively than free antibodies. Targeting of prospective nanocarriers in the 10–50 nm range, however, has not been studied. To address this intriguing issue, we conjugated monoclonal antibodies (Ab) to ICAM-1 and PECAM-1 or their single chain antigen-binding fragments (scFv) to ferritin nanoparticles (FNPs, size 12 nm), thereby producing Ab/FNPs and scFv/FNPs. Targeted FNPs retained their typical symmetric core–shell structure with sizes of 20–25 nm and ∼4–5 Ab (or ∼7–9 scFv) per particle. Ab/FNPs and scFv/FNPs, but not control IgG/FNPs, bound specifically to cells expressing target molecules and accumulated in the lungs after intravenous injection, with pulmonary targeting an order of magnitude higher than free Ab. Most intriguing, the targeting of Ab/FNPs to ICAM-1, but not PECAM-1, surpassed that of larger Ab/carriers targeted by the same ligand. These results indicate that (i) FNPs may provide a platform for targeting endothelial adhesion molecules with carriers in the 20 nm size range, which has not been previously reported; and (ii) ICAM-1 and PECAM-1 (known to localize in different domains of endothelial plasmalemma) differ in their accessibility to circulating objects of this size, common for blood components and nanocarriers

Anti-ICAM scFv/TM provides enhanced endothelial protection in a mouse model of lung inflammation/injury.

<p>(a) Timeline of intratracheal LPS lung injury model. In experiments assessing endothelial barrier dysfunction, a tracer amount of ¹²⁵I-labeled albumin was injected 5 minutes prior to LPS administration. (b) Concentration of the chemokine MIP-2 in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid. (c) mRNA transcript levels of pro-inflammatory cell adhesion molecules, VCAM-1 and E-selectin, in lung homogenate. (d) Endothelial barrier dysfunction, as measured by leakage of ¹²⁵I-labeled albumin from blood into lung interstitium and/or alveolar space. All data shown are mean ± SD, with number of animals as shown.</p

Schematic representation of TM fusion proteins anchored to the endothelial plasmalemma.

<p>The proximity of ICAM-targeted TM to endogenous EPCR/Protein C may account for its enhanced activity <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i>.</p

Binding and activity of TM fusion proteins on mouse endothelial cells.

<p>(a) Anti-PECAM scFv/TM and (b) anti-ICAM scFv/TM bind to their respective ligands on MS1 cells. Binding is inhibited by excess of parental anti-PECAM-1 and anti-ICAM-1 antibodies. (c) Anti-ICAM scFv/TM demonstrates ∼15-fold greater activity per binding site on MS1 cells, as compared to its PECAM-anchored counterpart. (d) Antibody blockade of EPCR results in a ∼50% decrease in APC generation by endogenous TM and anti-ICAM scFv/TM, but not anti-PECAM scFv/TM. All experiments were done in triplicate. Data shown are mean ± SD.</p

Collaborative enhancement binding of anti-muPECAM-1 [125I]-mAb 390 in live cells.

<p>Binding curves of anti- [125I]-mAb 390 alone (“solo”) or in the presence of unlabeled mAb Mec13.3 to paired epitope (”paired”) in live cells stably expressing recombinant muPECAM-1 (RmP) (A) and mutant form of muPECAM-1 (RmPK89A) (B) determined by RIA-based method. Increasing concentrations of [125I]-mAb treatments solo or with a paired mAb were added to cells and incubated at 4°C for 2h. The results are presented as total binding corrected for nonspecific binding on REN-WT cells. The effect of co-incubation with paired mAb vs solo was not significant. Yet, Kd changed 0.86 ±0.07-fold in RmP and 0.83±0.05 in RmPK89A. The insets show Scatchard analysis of experiments.</p