Elastin-like polypeptides: the influence of its molecular weight on local hyperthermia-induced tumor accumulation.

Elastin-like polypeptides (ELP) are thermally responsive polypeptides that are soluble in solutions at 37°C, but which aggregate above 42°C. ELP can be used as effective carrier systems of anticancer molecules, because they can be targeted to tumor sites through the application of local hyperthermia. Since molecular size largely influences how successfully therapeutic agents can cross the vasculatures of tumors, it was crucial to determine an optimal molecular size. In this study, we designed and evaluated three ELP macromolecules with varying molecular weights (43, 63, and 122 kDa), with the goal of determining which would optimize the ELP drug delivery system. The N-terminus of the ELP macromolecule was modified with the cell penetrating peptide Bac to enhance intratumoral and intracellular uptake, and it was also confirmed that each polypeptide had the target transition temperature of 37-42°C and the results of the studies, using tumor-bearing mice, showed that the tumor accumulations increased in the case of all three peptides when local hyperthermia was applied, but that the elimination patterns from these tumors varied according to peptide size. Local hyperthermia was found to produce prolonged retention of all ELP conjugates in tumors except Bac-ELP43. In addition, the pharmacokinetic analysis showed that two larger polypeptides with 63 and 122 kDa have increased AUC in comparison with the 43 kDa polypeptide. These results suggest that, when combined with local hyperthermia, the larger ELP conjugates (63 and 122 kDa) have advantages over the smaller Bac-ELP43 polypeptide in terms of enhanced permeability and higher retention effects.

Thermal cycling enhances the accumulation of a temperature-sensitive biopolymer in solid tumors.

The delivery of anticancer therapeutics to solid tumors remains a critical problem in the treatment of cancer. This study reports a new methodology to target a temperature-responsive macromolecular drug carrier, an elastin-like polypeptide (ELP) to solid tumors. Using a dorsal skin fold window chamber model and intravital laser scanning confocal microscopy, we show that the ELP forms micron-sized aggregates that adhere to the tumor vasculature only when tumors are heated to 41.5 degrees C. Upon return to normothermia, the vascular particles dissolve into the plasma, increasing the vascular concentration, which drives more ELPs across the tumor blood vessel and significantly increases its extravascular accumulation. These observations suggested that thermal cycling of tumors would increase the exposure of tumor cells to ELP drug carriers. We investigated this hypothesis in this study by thermally cycling an implanted tumor in nude mice from body temperature to 41.5 degrees C thrice within 1.5 h, and showed the repeated formation of adherent microparticles of ELP in the heated tumor vasculature in each thermal cycle. These results suggest that thermal cycling of tumors can be repeated multiple times to further increase the accumulation of a thermally responsive polymeric drug carrier in solid tumors over a single heat-cool cycle. More broadly, this study shows a new approach--tumor thermal cycling--to exploit stimuli-responsive polymers in vivo to target the tumor vasculature or extravascular compartment with high specificity.

In vitro and in vivo evaluation of recombinant silk-elastinlike hydrogels for cancer gene therapy.

The objectives of this study were to evaluate: (i). the influences of hydrogel geometry, DNA molecular weight, and DNA conformation on DNA release from a silk-elastinlike protein polymer (SELP) hydrogel, (ii). the bioactivity and transfection efficiency of encapsulated DNA over time in vitro, (iii). the delivery and transfection of a reporter gene in a murine model of human breast cancer in vivo, and (iv). the in vitro release and bioactivity of adenovirus containing the green fluorescent protein (gfp) gene as a marker of gene transfer. Plasmid DNA was released from SELP hydrogels in a size-dependent manner, with the average effective diffusivity ranging from 1.70+/-0.52 x 10(-12) cm(2)/s for a larger plasmid (11 kbp) to 2.55+/-0.51 x 10(-10) cm(2)/s for a smaller plasmid (2.6 kbp). Plasmid conformation also influenced the rate of release, with the rank order linear>supercoiled>open-circular. DNA retained bioactivity in vitro, after encapsulation in a SELP hydrogel for up to 28 days. Delivery of pRL-CMV from a SELP hydrogel resulted in increased transfection in a murine model of human breast cancer by 1-3 orders of magnitude, as compared to naked DNA. The release of a bioactive adenoviral vector was related to the concentration of the polymer in the hydrogel. These studies indicate that genetically engineered SELP hydrogels have potential as matrices for controlled nonviral and viral gene delivery.

Enhanced uptake of a thermally responsive polypeptide by tumor cells in response to its hyperthermia-mediated phase transition.

Elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) composed of a VPGXG repeat undergo a reversible phase transition in aqueous solution. They are hydrophilic and soluble in aqueous solution below their transition temperature (T(t)), but they become hydrophobic and aggregate when the temperature is raised above their T(t). In this study, we examine the quantitative uptake of a fluorescence-labeled, thermally responsive ELP as a function of ELP concentration between 5 and 15 microM in solution in response to hyperthermia by three cultured cancer cell lines. Flow cytometry of fluorescein-ELP conjugates showed that hyperthermia enhanced the cellular uptake of the thermally responsive ELP in human ovarian carcinoma cells (SKOV-3) and in HeLa cells at a concentration of 10 microM or higher, but not at a concentration of 5 microM, as compared with the uptake of a thermally inactive ELP control. In FaDu cells, hyperthermia stimulated uptake of the thermally responsive ELP at all solution concentrations of ELP between 5 and 15 microM. In particular, a >2-fold greater uptake of thermally responsive ELP compared with the thermally inactive control ELP was observed for FaDu cells at a solution concentration of 15 microM in heated cells. Confocal fluorescence microscopy of tumor cells incubated with a rhodamine conjugate of the thermally responsive ELP showed that the cytoplasm was uniformly stained below the T(t). Above the T(t), fluorescent particles were observed in the cytoplasm, suggesting that these particles are aggregates of the thermally responsive polypeptide resulting from the ELP phase transition. These studies demonstrate that the endocytotic uptake of a thermally responsive ELP is significantly enhanced by the thermally triggered phase transition of the polypeptide.

Targeting a genetically engineered elastin-like polypeptide to solid tumors by local hyperthermia.

Elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) are biopolymers of the pentapeptide repeat Val-Pro-Gly-Xaa-Gly that undergo an inverse temperature phase transition. They are soluble in aqueous solutions below their transition temperature (T1) but hydrophobically collapse and aggregate at temperatures greater than T1. We hypothesized that ELPs conjugated to drugs would enable thermally targeted drug delivery to solid tumors if their T1 were between body temperature and the temperature in a locally heated region. To test this hypothesis, we synthesized a thermally responsive ELP with a T1 of 41 degrees C and a thermally unresponsive control ELP in Escherichia coli using recombinant DNA techniques. In vivo fluorescence videomicroscopy and radiolabel distribution studies of ELP delivery to human tumors (SKOV-3 ovarian carcinoma and D-54MG glioma) implanted in nude mice demonstrated that hyperthermic targeting of the thermally responsive ELP for 1 h provides a approximately 2-fold increase in tumor localization compared to the same polypeptide without hyperthermia. We observed aggregates of the thermally responsive ELP by fluorescence videomicroscopy within the heated tumor microvasculature but not in control experiments, which demonstrates that the phase transition of the thermally responsive ELP carrier can be engineered to occur in vivo at a specified temperature. By exploiting the phase transition-induced aggregation of these polypeptides, this method provides a new way to thermally target polymer-drug conjugates to solid tumors.