Cancer Immunotherapy of TLR4 Agonist-Antigen Constructs Enhanced with Pathogen-Mimicking Magnetite Nanoparticles and Checkpoint Blockade of PD-L1

Despite the tremendous potential of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) agonists in vaccines, their efficacy as monotherapy to treat cancer has been limited. Only some lipopolysaccharides (LPS) isolated from particular bacterial strains or structures like monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA) derived from lipooligosaccharide (LOS), avoid toxic overactivation of innate immune responses while retaining adequate immunogenicity to act as adjuvants. Here, different LOS structures are incorporated into nanoparticle-filled phospholipid micelles for efficient vaccine delivery and more potent cancer immunotherapy. The structurally unique LOS of the plant pathogen Xcc is incorporated into phospholipid micelles encapsulating iron oxide nanoparticles, producing stable pathogen-mimicking nanostructures suitable for targeting antigen presenting cells in the lymph nodes. The antigen is conjugated via a hydrazone bond, enabling rapid, easy-to-monitor and high-yield antigen ligation at low concentrations. The protective effect of these constructs is investigated against a highly aggressive model for tumor immunotherapy. The results show that the nanovaccines lead to a higher-level antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) effector and memory responses, which when combined with abrogation of the immunosuppressive programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), provide 100% long-term protection against repeated tumor challenge. This nanovaccine platform in combination with checkpoint inhibition of PD-L1 represents a promising approach to improve the cancer immunotherapy of TLR4 agonists

Low-dose statin treatment increases prostate cancer aggressiveness

Prostate cancer is diagnosed late in life, when co-morbidities are frequent. Among them, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes or metabolic syndrome exhibit an elevated incidence. In turn, prostate cancer patients frequently undergo chronic pharmacological treatments that could alter disease initiation, progression and therapy response. Here we show that treatment with anti-cholesterolemic drugs, statins, at doses achieved in patients, enhance the pro-tumorigenic activity of obesogenic diets. In addition, the use of a mouse model of prostate cancer and human prostate cancer xenografts revealed that in vivo simvastatin administration alone increases prostate cancer aggressiveness. In vitro cell line systems supported the notion that this phenomenon occurs, at least in part, through the direct action on cancer cells of low doses of statins, in range of what is observed in human plasma. In sum, our results reveal a prostate cancer experimental system where statins exhibit an undesirable effect, and warrant further research to address the relevance and implications of this observation in human prostate cancer

Low-dose statin treatment increases prostate cancer aggressiveness

Altres ajuts: NM-M was supported by the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC), AECC JP Vizcaya. VT is supported by Fundación Vasca de Innovación e Investigación Sanitarias, BIOEF (BIO15/CA/052), the department of health of the Basque Government (2016111109) and the 2016 grant of the AECC (Junta provincial de Bizkaia). LA, AA-A and LV-J were supported by the Basque Government of education. The work of A.C. is supported by the Ramón y Cajal award, the Basque Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade (Etortek) and the department of education (IKERTALDE IT1106-16), FERO VIII Fellowship, the BBVA foundation, Severo Ochoa. Excellence Accreditation SEV-2016-0644) and the European Research Council (Starting Grant 336343; Proof of Concept 754627). The participation of AC, VT, NM-M, SF and AZ as part of CIBERONC was co-funded with FEDER funds.Prostate cancer is diagnosed late in life, when co-morbidities are frequent. Among them, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes or metabolic syndrome exhibit an elevated incidence. In turn, prostate cancer patients frequently undergo chronic pharmacological treatments that could alter disease initiation, progression and therapy response. Here we show that treatment with anti-cholesterolemic drugs, statins, at doses achieved in patients, enhance the pro-tumorigenic activity of obesogenic diets. In addition, the use of a mouse model of prostate cancer and human prostate cancer xenografts revealed that in vivo simvastatin administration alone increases prostate cancer aggressiveness. In vitro cell line systems supported the notion that this phenomenon occurs, at least in part, through the direct action on cancer cells of low doses of statins, in range of what is observed in human plasma. In sum, our results reveal a prostate cancer experimental system where statins exhibit an undesirable effect, and warrant further research to address the relevance and implications of this observation in human prostate cancer

METTL1 promotes tumorigenesis through tRNA-derived fragment biogenesis in prostate cancer

Newly growing evidence highlights the essential role that epitranscriptomic marks play in the development of many cancers; however, little is known about the role and implications of altered epitranscriptome deposition in prostate cancer. Here, we show that the transfer RNA N-7-methylguanosine (m(7)G) transferase METTL1 is highly expressed in primary and advanced prostate tumours. Mechanistically, we find that METTL1 depletion causes the loss of m(7)G tRNA methylation and promotes the biogenesis of a novel class of small non-coding RNAs derived from 5'tRNA fragments. 5'tRNA-derived small RNAs steer translation control to favour the synthesis of key regulators of tumour growth suppression, interferon pathway, and immune effectors. Knockdown of Mettl1 in prostate cancer preclinical models increases intratumoural infiltration of pro-inflammatory immune cells and enhances responses to immunotherapy. Collectively, our findings reveal a therapeutically actionable role of METTL1-directed m(7)G tRNA methylation in cancer cell translation control and tumour biology

Pre-targeting with ultra-small nanoparticles: Boron carbon dots as drug candidates for boron neutron capture therapy

Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is a promising cancer treatment exploiting the neutron capture capacity and subsequent fission reaction of boron-10. The emergence of nanotechnology has encouraged the development of nanocarriers capable of accumulating boron atoms preferentially in tumour cells. However, a long circulation time, required for high tumour accumulation, is usually accompanied by accumulation of the nanosystem in organs such as the liver and the spleen, which may cause off-target side effects. This could be overcome by using small-sized boron carriers via a pre-targeting strategy. Here, we report the preparation, characterisation and in vivo evaluation of tetrazine-functionalised boron-rich carbon dots, which show very fast clearance and low tumour uptake after intravenous administration in a mouse HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2)-positive tumour model. Enhanced tumour accumulation was achieved when using a pretargeting approach, which was accomplished by a highly selective biorthogonal reaction at the tumour site with trans-cyclooctene-functionalised Trastuzumab. This journal i

Therapeutic Pretargeting with Gold Nanoparticles as Drug Candidates for Boron Neutron Capture Therapy

Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is a binary approach for cancer treatment in which boron-10 atoms and thermal neutrons need to colocalize to become effective. Recent research in the development of BNCT drug candidates focuses increasingly on nanomaterials, with the advantages of high boron loadings and passive targeting due to the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect. The use of small boron-rich gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in combination with a pretargeting approach is proposed. Small sized polyethylene glycol–stabilized AuNPs (core size 4.1 ± 1.5 nm), are synthesized and functionalized with thiolated cobalt bis(dicarbollide) and tetrazine. To enable in vivo tracking of the AuNPs by positron emission tomography (PET), the core is doped with [64Cu]CuCl2. For the pretargeting approach, the monoclonal antibody Trastuzumab is functionalized with trans-cyclooctene-N-hydroxysuccinimide ester. After proving in vitro occurrence of the antibody conjugation onto the AuNPs by click reaction and the low toxicity of the AuNPs, the boron delivery system is evaluated in vivo using breast cancer xenograft bearing mice and PET imaging. Tumor uptake due to the EPR effect can be witnessed with ≈5% injected dose (ID) cm−3 at 24 h postinjection, but with slower clearance than expected. Therefore, no increased retention can be observed using the pretargeting strategy.The project was carried out under the H2020—MSCA-ITN-2015 program, Grant Agreement No. 675417. J.L. thanks the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Project No. CTQ2017-87637-R) for financial support. Part of the work has been performed under the Maria de Maeztu Units of Excellence Program from the Spanish State Research Agency (Grant No. MDM-2017-0720).Peer reviewe

METTL1 promotes tumorigenesis through tRNA-derived fragment biogenesis in prostate cancer

Newly growing evidence highlights the essential role that epitranscriptomic marks play in the development of many cancers; however, little is known about the role and implications of altered epitranscriptome deposition in prostate cancer. Here, we show that the transfer RNA N7-methylguanosine (m7G) transferase METTL1 is highly expressed in primary and advanced prostate tumours. Mechanistically, we find that METTL1 depletion causes the loss of m7G tRNA methylation and promotes the biogenesis of a novel class of small non-coding RNAs derived from 5'tRNA fragments. 5'tRNA-derived small RNAs steer translation control to favour the synthesis of key regulators of tumour growth suppression, interferon pathway, and immune effectors. Knockdown of Mettl1 in prostate cancer preclinical models increases intratumoural infiltration of pro-inflammatory immune cells and enhances responses to immunotherapy. Collectively, our findings reveal a therapeutically actionable role of METTL1-directed m7G tRNA methylation in cancer cell translation control and tumour biology