Redirecting extracellular proteases to molecularly guide radiosensitizing drugs to tumors.

Patients with advanced cancers are treated with combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy, however curability is poor and treatment side effects severe. Drugs sensitizing tumors to radiotherapy have been developed to improve cell kill, but tumor specificity remains challenging. To achieve tumor selectivity of small molecule radiosensitizers, we tested as a strategy active tumor targeting using peptide-based drug conjugates. We attached an inhibitor of the DNA damage response to antibody or cell penetrating peptides. Antibody drug conjugates honed in on tumor overexpressed cell surface receptors with high specificity but lacked efficacy when conjugated to the DNA damage checkpoint kinase inhibitor AZD7762. As an alternative approach, we synthesized activatable cell penetrating peptide scaffolds that accumulated within tumors based on matrix metalloproteinase cleavage. While matrix metalloproteinases are integral to tumor progression, they have proven therapeutically elusive. We harnessed these pro-tumorigenic extracellular proteases to spatially guide radiosensitizer drug delivery using cleavable activatable cell penetrating peptides. Here, we tested the potential of these two drug delivery platforms targeting distinct tumor compartments in combination with radiotherapy and demonstrate the advantages of protease triggered cell penetrating peptide scaffolds over antibody drug conjugates to deliver small molecule amine radiosensitizers.

APTO-253 Is a New Addition to the Repertoire of Drugs that Can Exploit DNA BRCA1/2 Deficiency.

APTO-253 is a small molecule with antiproliferative activity against cell lines derived from a wide range of human malignancies. We sought to determine the mechanisms of action and basis for resistance to APTO-253 so as to identify synthetic lethal interactions that can guide combination studies. The cellular pharmacology of APTO-253 was analyzed in Raji lymphoma cells and a subline selected for resistance (Raji/253R). Using LC/MS/ESI analysis, APTO-253 was found to convert intracellularly to a complex containing one molecule of iron and three molecules of APTO-253 [Fe(253)3]. The intracellular content of Fe(253)3 exceeded that of the native drug by approximately 18-fold, and Fe(253)3 appears to be the most active form. Treatment of cells with APTO-253 caused DNA damage, which led us to ask whether cells deficient in homologous recombination (i.e., loss of BRCA1/2 function) were hypersensitive to this drug. It was found that loss of either BRCA1 or BRCA2 function in multiple isogenic paired cell lines resulted in hypersensitivity to APTO-253 of a magnitude similar to the effects of PARP inhibitors, olaparib. Raji cells selected for 16-fold acquired resistance had 16-fold reduced accumulation of Fe(253)3 RNA-seq analysis revealed that overexpression of the ABCG2 drug efflux pump is a key mechanism of resistance. ABCG2-overexpressed HEK-293 cells were resistant to APTO-253, and inhibition of ABCG2 reversed resistance to APTO-253 in Raji/253R. APTO-253 joins the limited repertoire of drugs that can exploit defects in homologous recombination and is of particular interest because it does not produce myelosuppression. Mol Cancer Ther; 17(6); 1167-76. ©2018 AACR.

Laminin targeting of a peripheral nerve-highlighting peptide enables degenerated nerve visualization.

Target-blind activity-based screening of molecular libraries is often used to develop first-generation compounds, but subsequent target identification is rate-limiting to developing improved agents with higher specific affinity and lower off-target binding. A fluorescently labeled nerve-binding peptide, NP41, selected by phage display, highlights peripheral nerves in vivo. Nerve highlighting has the potential to improve surgical outcomes by facilitating intraoperative nerve identification, reducing accidental nerve transection, and facilitating repair of damaged nerves. To enable screening of molecular target-specific molecules for higher nerve contrast and to identify potential toxicities, NP41's binding target was sought. Laminin-421 and -211 were identified by proximity-based labeling using singlet oxygen and by an adapted version of TRICEPS-based ligand-receptor capture to identify glycoprotein receptors via ligand cross-linking. In proximity labeling, photooxidation of a ligand-conjugated singlet oxygen generator is coupled to chemical labeling of locally oxidized residues. Photooxidation of methylene blue-NP41-bound nerves, followed by biotin hydrazide labeling and purification, resulted in light-induced enrichment of laminin subunits α4 and α2, nidogen 1, and decorin (FDR-adjusted P value < 10-7) and minor enrichment of laminin-γ1 and collagens I and VI. Glycoprotein receptor capture also identified laminin-α4 and -γ1. Laminins colocalized with NP41 within nerve sheath, particularly perineurium, where laminin-421 is predominant. Binding assays with phage expressing NP41 confirmed binding to purified laminin-421, laminin-211, and laminin-α4. Affinity for these extracellular matrix proteins explains the striking ability of NP41 to highlight degenerated nerve "ghosts" months posttransection that are invisible to the unaided eye but retain hollow laminin-rich tubular structures.

Fluorescent peptides highlight peripheral nerves during surgery in mice.

Nerve preservation is an important goal during surgery because accidental transection or injury leads to significant morbidity, including numbness, pain, weakness or paralysis. Nerves are usually identified by their appearance and relationship to nearby structures or detected by local electrical stimulation (electromyography), but thin or buried nerves are sometimes overlooked. Here, we use phage display to select a peptide that binds preferentially to nerves. After systemic injection of a fluorescently labeled version of the peptide in mice, all peripheral nerves are clearly delineated within 2 h. Contrast between nerve and adjacent tissue is up to tenfold, and useful contrast lasts up to 8 h. No changes in behavior or activity are observed after treatment, indicating a lack of obvious toxicity. The fluorescent probe also labels nerves in human tissue samples. Fluorescence highlighting is independent of axonal integrity, suggesting that the probe could facilitate surgical repair of injured nerves and help prevent accidental transection.

Parallel in vivo and in vitro selection using phage display identifies protease-dependent tumor-targeting peptides.

We recently developed activatable cell-penetrating peptides (ACPPs) that target contrast agents to in vivo sites of matrix metalloproteinase activity, such as tumors. Here we use parallel in vivo and in vitro selection with phage display to identify novel tumor-homing ACPPs with no bias for primary sequence or target protease. Specifically, phage displaying a library of ACPPs were either injected into tumor-bearing mice, followed by isolation of cleaved phage from dissected tumor, or isolated based on selective cleavage by extracts of tumor versus normal tissue. Selected sequences were synthesized as fluorescently labeled peptides, and tumor-specific cleavage was confirmed by digestion with tissue extracts. The most efficiently cleaved peptide contained the substrate sequence RLQLKL and labeled tumors and metastases from several cancer models with up to 5-fold contrast. This uniquely identified ACPP was not cleaved by matrix metalloproteinases or various coagulation factors but was efficiently cleaved by plasmin and elastases, both of which have been shown to be aberrantly overexpressed in tumors. The identification of an ACPP that targets tumor expressed proteases without rational design highlights the value of unbiased selection schemes for the development of potential therapeutic agents.

In vivo characterization of activatable cell penetrating peptides for targeting protease activity in cancer.

Activatable cell penetrating peptides (ACPPs) are novel in vivo targeting agents comprised of a polycationic cell penetrating peptide (CPP) connected via a cleavable linker to a neutralizing polyanion (). Adsorption and uptake into cells are inhibited until the linker is proteolyzed. An ACPP cleavable by matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) in vitro was the first one demonstrated to work in a tumor model in vivo, but only HT-1080 xenografts and resected human squamous cell carcinomas were tested. Generality to other cancer types, in vivo selectivity of ACPPs for MMPs, and spatial resolution require further characterization. We now show that ACPPs can target many xenograft tumor models from different cancer sites, as well as a thoroughly studied transgenic model of spontaneous breast cancer (mouse mammary tumor virus promoter driving polyoma middle T antigen, MMTV-PyMT). Pharmacological inhibitors and genetic knockouts indicate that current ACPPs are selective for MMP-2 and MMP-9 in the above in vivo models. In accord with the known local distribution of MMP activity, accumulation is strongest at the tumor-stromal interface in primary tumors and associated metastases, indicating better spatial resolution (<50 mum) than other currently available MMP-cleavable probes. We also find that background uptake of ACPPs into normal tissues such as cartilage can be decreased by appending inert macromolecules of 30-50 KDa to the polyanionic inhibitory domain. Our results validate an approach that should generally deliver imaging agents and chemotherapeutics to sites of invasion, tumor-promoting inflammation, and metastasis.

New biarsenical ligands and tetracysteine motifs for protein labeling in vitro and in vivo: synthesis and biological applications.

We recently introduced a method (Griffin, B. A.; Adams, S. R.; Tsien, R. Y. Science 1998, 281, 269-272 and Griffin, B. A.; Adams, S. R.; Jones, J.; Tsien, R. Y. Methods Enzymol. 2000, 327, 565-578) for site-specific fluorescent labeling of recombinant proteins in living cells. The sequence Cys-Cys-Xaa-Xaa-Cys-Cys, where Xaa is an noncysteine amino acid, is genetically fused to or inserted within the protein, where it can be specifically recognized by a membrane-permeant fluorescein derivative with two As(III) substituents, FlAsH, which fluoresces only after the arsenics bind to the cysteine thiols. We now report kinetics and dissociation constants ( approximately 10(-11) M) for FlAsH binding to model tetracysteine peptides. Affinities in vitro and detection limits in living cells are optimized with Xaa-Xaa = Pro-Gly, suggesting that the preferred peptide conformation is a hairpin rather than the previously proposed alpha-helix. Many analogues of FlAsH have been synthesized, including ReAsH, a resorufin derivative excitable at 590 nm and fluorescing in the red. Analogous biarsenicals enable affinity chromatography, fluorescence anisotropy measurements, and electron-microscopic localization of tetracysteine-tagged proteins.