Azobenzene-Based Linker Strategy for Selective Activation of Antibody-Drug Conjugates.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl
; 63(16): e202310318, 2024 04 15.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38369681
ABSTRACT
Existing antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) linkers, whether cleavable or non-cleavable, are designed to release highly toxic payloads or payload derivatives upon internalisation of the ADCs into cells. However, clinical studies have shown that only <1 % of the dosed ADCs accumulate in tumour cells. The remaining >99 % of ADCs are nonspecifically distributed in healthy tissue cells, thus inevitably leading to off-target toxicity. Herein, we describe an intelligent tumour-specific linker strategy to address these limitations. A tumour-specific linker is constructed by introducing a hypoxia-activated azobenzene group as a toxicity controller. We show that this azobenzene-based linker is non-cleavable in healthy tissues (O2 >10 %), and the corresponding payload derivative, cysteine-appended azobenzene-linker-monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE), can serve as a safe prodrug to mask the toxicity of MMAE (switched off). Upon exposure to the hypoxic tumour microenvironment (O2<1 %), this linker is cleaved to release MMAE and fully restores the high cytotoxicity of the ADC (switched on). Notably, the azobenzene linker-containing ADC exhibits satisfactory antitumour efficacy in vivo and a larger therapeutic window compared with ADCs containing traditional cleavable or non-cleavable linkers. Thus, our azobenzene-based linker sheds new light on the development of next-generation ADC linkers.
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Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Imunoconjugados
/
Neoplasias
/
Antineoplásicos
Limite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article