Leveraging Colloidal Aggregation for Drug-Rich Nanoparticle Formulations.

While limited drug loading continues to be problematic for chemotherapeutics formulated in nanoparticles, we found that we could take advantage of colloidal drug aggregation to achieve high loading when combined with polymeric excipients. We demonstrate this approach with two drugs, fulvestrant and pentyl-PABC doxazolidine (PPD; a prodrug of doxazolidine, which is a DNA cross-linking anthracycline), and two polymers, polysorbate 80 (UP80) and poly(d,l-lactide-co-2-methyl-2-carboxytrimethylene carbonate)-graft-poly(ethylene glycol) (PLAC-PEG; a custom-synthesized, self-assembling amphiphilic polymer). In both systems, drug-loaded nanoparticles had diameters < 200 nm and were stable for up to two days in buffered saline solution and for up to 24 h in serum-containing media at 37 °C. While colloidal drug aggregates alone are typically unstable in saline and serum-containing media, we attribute the colloid stability observed herein to the polymeric excipients and consequent decreased protein adsorption. We expect this strategy of polymer-stabilized colloidal drug aggregates to be broadly applicable in delivery formulations.

Synthetic Ionizable Colloidal Drug Aggregates Enable Endosomal Disruption.

Colloidal drug aggregates enable the design of drug-rich nanoparticles; however, the efficacy of stabilized colloidal drug aggregates is limited by entrapment in the endo-lysosomal pathway. Although ionizable drugs are used to elicit lysosomal escape, this approach is hindered by toxicity associated with phospholipidosis. It is hypothesized that tuning the pKa of the drug would enable endosomal disruption while avoiding phospholipidosis and minimizing toxicity. To test this idea, 12 analogs of the nonionizable colloidal drug fulvestrant are synthesized with ionizable groups to enable pH-dependent endosomal disruption while maintaining bioactivity. Lipid-stabilized fulvestrant analog colloids are endocytosed by cancer cells, and the pKa of these ionizable colloids influenced the mechanism of endosomal and lysosomal disruption. Four fulvestrant analogs-those with pKa values between 5.1 and 5.7-disrupted endo-lysosomes without measurable phospholipidosis. Thus, by manipulating the pKa of colloid-forming drugs, a tunable and generalizable strategy for endosomal disruption is established.

Directed Evolution Enables Simultaneous Controlled Release of Multiple Therapeutic Proteins from Biopolymer-Based Hydrogels.

With the advent of increasingly complex combination strategies of biologics, independent control over their delivery is the key to their efficacy; however, current approaches are hindered by the limited independent tunability of their release rates. To overcome these limitations, directed evolution is used to engineer highly specific, low affinity affibody binding partners to multiple therapeutic proteins to independently control protein release rates. As a proof-of-concept, specific affibody binding partners for two proteins with broad therapeutic utility: insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) are identified. Protein-affibody binding interactions specific to these target proteins with equilibrium dissociation constants (KD ) between 10-7 and 10-8 m are discovered. The affibodies are covalently bound to the backbone of crosslinked hydrogels using click chemistry, enabling sustained, independent, and simultaneous release of bioactive IGF-1 and PEDF over 7 days. The system is tested with C57BL/6J mice in vivo, and the affibody-controlled release of IGF-1 results in sustained activity when compared to bolus IGF-1 delivery. This work demonstrates a new, broadly applicable approach to tune the release of therapeutic proteins simultaneously and independently and thus the way for precise control over the delivery of multicomponent therapies is paved.

Triggered Release Enhances the Cytotoxicity of Stable Colloidal Drug Aggregates.

Chemotherapeutics that self-assemble into colloids have limited efficacy above their critical aggregation concentration due to their inability to penetrate intact plasma membranes. Even when colloid uptake is promoted, issues with colloid escape from the endolysosomal pathway persist. By stabilizing acid-responsive lapatinib colloids through coaggregation with fulvestrant, and inclusion of transferrin, we demonstrate colloid internalization by cancer cells, where subsequent lapatinib ionization leads to endosomal leakage and increased cytotoxicity. These results demonstrate a strategy for triggered drug release from stable colloidal aggregates.

Colloidal Drug Aggregate Stability in High Serum Conditions and Pharmacokinetic Consequence.

Colloidal drug aggregates have been a nuisance in drug screening, yet, because they inherently comprise drug-rich particles, they may be useful in vivo if issues of stability can be addressed. As the first step toward answering this question, we optimized colloidal drug aggregate formulations using a fluorescence-based assay to study fulvestrant colloidal formation and stability in high (90%) serum conditions in vitro. We show, for the first time, that the critical aggregation concentration of fulvestrant depends on media composition and increases with serum concentration. Excipients, such as polysorbate 80, stabilize fulvestrant colloids in 90% serum in vitro for over 48 h. Using fulvestrant and an investigational pro-drug, pentyloxycarbonyl-( p-aminobenzyl) doxazolidinylcarbamate (PPD), as proof-of-concept colloidal formulations, we demonstrate that the in vivo plasma half-life for stabilized colloids is greater than their respective monomeric forms. These studies demonstrate the potential of turning the nuisance of colloidal drug aggregation into an opportunity for drug-rich formulations.

Benchmarking to the Gold Standard: Hyaluronan-Oxime Hydrogels Recapitulate Xenograft Models with In Vitro Breast Cancer Spheroid Culture.

Many 3D in vitro models induce breast cancer spheroid formation; however, this alone does not recapitulate the complex in vivo phenotype. To effectively screen therapeutics, it is urgently needed to validate in vitro cancer spheroid models against the gold standard of xenografts. A new oxime-crosslinked hyaluronan (HA) hydrogel is designed, manipulating gelation rate and mechanical properties to grow breast cancer spheroids in 3D. This HA-oxime breast cancer model maintains the gene expression profile most similar to that of tumor xenografts based on a pan-cancer gene expression profile (comprising 730 genes) of three different human breast cancer subtypes compared to Matrigel or conventional 2D culture. Differences in gene expression between breast cancer cultures in HA-oxime versus Matrigel or 2D are confirmed for 12 canonical pathways by gene set variation analysis. Importantly, drug response is dependent on the culture method. Breast cancer cells respond better to the Rac inhibitor (EHT-1864) and the PI3K inhibitor (AZD6482) when cultured in HA-oxime versus Matrigel. This study demonstrates the superiority of an HA-based hydrogel as a platform for in vitro breast cancer culture of both primary, patient-derived cells and cell lines, and provides a hydrogel culture model that closely matches that in vivo.

Colloidal aggregation: from screening nuisance to formulation nuance.

It is well known that small molecule colloidal aggregation is a leading cause of false positives in early drug discovery. Colloid-formers are diverse and well represented among corporate and academic screening decks, and even among approved drugs. Less appreciated is how colloid formation by drug-like compounds fits into the wider understanding of colloid physical chemistry. Here we introduce the impact that colloidal aggregation has had on early drug discovery, and then turn to the physical and thermodynamic driving forces for small molecule colloidal aggregation, including the particulate nature of the colloids, their critical aggregation concentration-governed formation, their mechanism of protein adsorption and subsequent inhibition, and their sensitivity to detergent. We describe methods that have been used extensively to both identify aggregate-formers and to study and control their physical chemistry. While colloidal aggregation is widely recognized as a problem in early drug discovery, we highlight the opportunities for exploiting this phenomenon in biological milieus and for drug formulation.

Preclinical evaluation of taxane-binding peptide-modified polymeric micelles loaded with docetaxel in an orthotopic breast cancer mouse model.

We developed a novel taxane-binding peptide (TBP) modified, biodegradable polymeric micelle that overcomes limitations of drug loading and poor serum stability typically seen with particle delivery, leading to enhanced pharmacokinetics and tumor distribution of docetaxel (DTX). The use of the taxane-binding peptide to increase docetaxel loading is particularly compelling as it takes advantage of a known intracellular binding mechanism in a new way. Docetaxel is a potent chemotherapeutic with a therapeutic index often limited by the toxicity of the excipients that are necessary to enhance its solubility for intravenous delivery. Our polymeric micelle has terminal furan groups that enable facile antibody Fab conjugation by Diels-Alder chemistry for targeted delivery. Compared to the conventional ethanolic polysorbate 80 formulation (Free DTX), our nanoparticle (NP DTX) formulation exhibited a two-fold increase in exposure and tumor accumulation. Notably, the reduced toxicity of the NP DTX formulation increased the therapeutic index and allowed for higher dosing regimens, with a maximum tolerated dose (MTD) 1.6-fold higher than that of the Free DTX formulation, which is significant and similar to enhancements observed in clinical products for docetaxel and other drugs. These improved properties led to enhanced mouse survival in an orthotopic model of breast cancer; however, the targeted formulation of Fab-NP DTX did not further improve efficacy. Together, these results clearly demonstrate the benefits of the TBP-modified polymeric micelles as promising carriers for docetaxel.

A New Spin on Antibody-Drug Conjugates: Trastuzumab-Fulvestrant Colloidal Drug Aggregates Target HER2-Positive Cells.

While the formation of colloidal aggregates leads to artifacts in early drug discovery, their composition makes them attractive as nanoparticle formulations for targeted drug delivery as the entire nanoparticle is composed of drug. The typical transient stability of colloidal aggregates has inhibited exploiting this property. To overcome this limitation, we investigated a series of proteins to stabilize colloidal aggregates of the chemotherapeutic, fulvestrant, including the following: bovine serum albumin, a generic human immunoglobulin G, and trastuzumab, a therapeutic human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 antibody. Protein coronas reduced colloid size to <300 nm and improved their stability to over 48 h in both buffered saline and media containing serum protein. Unlike colloids stabilized with other proteins, trastuzumab-fulvestrant colloids were taken up by HER2 overexpressing cells and were cytotoxic. This new targeted formulation reimagines antibody-drug conjugates, delivering mM concentrations of drug to a cell.

Stable Colloidal Drug Aggregates Catch and Release Active Enzymes.

Small molecule aggregates are considered nuisance compounds in drug discovery, but their unusual properties as colloids could be exploited to form stable vehicles to preserve protein activity. We investigated the coaggregation of seven molecules chosen because they had been previously intensely studied as colloidal aggregators, coformulating them with bis-azo dyes. The coformulation reduced colloid sizes to <100 nm and improved uniformity of the particle size distribution. The new colloid formulations are more stable than previous aggregator particles. Specifically, coaggregation of Congo Red with sorafenib, tetraiodophenolphthalein (TIPT), or vemurafenib produced particles that are stable in solutions of high ionic strength and high protein concentrations. Like traditional, single compound colloidal aggregates, the stabilized colloids adsorbed and inhibited enzymes like ß-lactamase, malate dehydrogenase, and trypsin. Unlike traditional aggregates, the coformulated colloid-protein particles could be centrifuged and resuspended multiple times, and from resuspended particles, active trypsin could be released up to 72 h after adsorption. Unexpectedly, the stable colloidal formulations can sequester, stabilize, and isolate enzymes by spin-down, resuspension, and release.

Colloidal drug formulations can explain "bell-shaped" concentration-response curves.

Drug efficacy does not always increase sigmoidally with concentration, which has puzzled the community for decades. Unlike standard sigmoidal curves, bell-shaped concentration-response curves suggest more complex biological effects, such as multiple-binding sites or multiple targets. Here, we investigate a physical property-based mechanism for bell-shaped curves. Beginning with the observation that some drugs form colloidal aggregates at relevant concentrations, we determined concentration-response curves for three aggregating anticancer drugs, formulated both as colloids and as free monomer. Colloidal formulations exhibited bell-shaped curves, losing activity at higher concentrations, while monomeric formulations gave typical sigmoidal curves, sustaining a plateau of maximum activity. Inverting the question, we next asked if molecules with bell-shaped curves, reported in the literature, form colloidal aggregates at relevant concentrations. We selected 12 molecules reported to have bell-shaped concentration-response curves and found that five of these formed colloids. To understand the mechanism behind the loss of activity at concentrations where colloids are present, we investigated the diffusion of colloid-forming dye Evans blue into cells. We found that colloidal species are excluded from cells, which may explain the mechanism behind toxicological screens that use Evans blue, Trypan blue, and related dyes.