Intracellular Delivery System for Antibody-Peptide Drug Conjugates

Antibodies armed with biologic drugs could greatly expand the therapeutic potential of antibody-drug conjugates for cancer therapy, broadening their application to disease targets currently limited by intracellular delivery barriers. Additional selectivity and new therapeutic approaches could be realized with intracellular protein drugs that more specifically target dysregulated pathways in hematologic cancers and other malignancies. A multifunctional polymeric delivery system for enhanced cytosolic delivery of protein drugs has been developed that incorporates endosomal-releasing activity, antibody targeting, and a biocompatible long-chain ethylene glycol component for optimized safety, pharmacokinetics, and tumor biodistribution. The pH-responsive polymeric micelle carrier, with an internalizing anti-CD22 monoclonal targeting antibody, effectively delivered a proapoptotic Bcl-2 interacting mediator (BIM) peptide drug that suppressed tumor growth for the duration of treatment and prolonged survival in a xenograft mouse model of human B-cell lymphoma. Antitumor drug activity was correlated with a mechanistic induction of the Bcl-2 pathway biomarker cleaved caspase-3 and a marked decrease in the Ki-67 proliferation biomarker. Broadening the intracellular target space by more effective delivery of protein/peptide drugs could expand the repertoire of antibody-drug conjugates to currently undruggable disease-specific targets and permit tailored drug strategies to stratified subpopulations and personalized medicines

Pairwise comparison of 89Zr- and 124I-labeled cG250 based on positron emission tomography imaging and nonlinear immunokinetic modeling: in vivo carbonic anhydrase IX receptor binding and internalization in mouse xenografts of clear-cell renal cell carcinoma

PURPOSE: The positron-emitting tomography (PET) tracer, (124)I-cG250, directed against carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX) shows promise for pre-surgical diagnosis of clear renal cell carcinoma (cRCC) [1, 2]. The radiometal zirconium-89 ((89)Zr), however, may offer advantages as a surrogate PET nuclide over (124)I in terms of greater tumor uptake and retention [3]. In the current report, we have developed a non-linear immunokinetic model to facilitate a quantitative comparison of absolute uptake and antibody turnover between (124)I-cG250 and (89)Zr- cG250 using a human cRCC xenograft tumor model in mice. We believe that his unique model better relates quantitative imaging data to the salient biologic features of tumor antibody-antigen binding and turnover. METHODS: We conducted experiments with (89)Zr-cG250 and (124)I-cG250 using a human ccRCC cell line (SK-RC-38) to characterize the binding affinity and internalization kinetics of the two tracers in vitro. Serial-PET imaging was performed in mice bearing sub-cutaneous cRCC tumors to simultaneously detect and quantify time-dependent tumor uptake in vivo. Using the known specific activities of the two tracers, the equilibrium rates of antibody internalization and turnover in the tumor were derived from the PET images using non-linear compartmental modeling. RESULTS: The two tracers demonstrate virtually identical tumor-cell binding and internalization but with markedly different retentions in vitro. Superior PET images were obtained using (89)Zr-cG250, owing to the more prolonged trapping of the radiolabel in the tumor and simultaneous wash-out from normal tissues. Estimates of cG250-CAIX complex turnover were 1.35–5.51 × 10(12) molecules per hour per gram of tumor (20% of receptors internalized per hour), and the ratio of (124)I/(89)Zr atoms released per unit time by tumor was 17.5. CONCLUSIONS: Pairwise evaluation of (89)Zr-cG250 and (124)I-cG250 provided the basis for a non-linear immunokinetic model which yielded quantitative information about the binding and internalization of radioantibody bound to CAIX on tumor cells in vivo. (89)Zr-cG250 is likely to provide high-quality PET images and may be a useful tool to quantify CAIX/cG250 receptor turnover and cG250-accessible antigen density non-invasively in man