Synthetic Tuning of Domain Stoichiometry in Nanobody-Enzyme Megamolecules

Bioconjug Chem. 2021 Jan 20;32(1):143-152. doi: 10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.0c00578. Epub 2020 Dec 10.

Abstract

This paper presents a method to synthetically tune atomically precise megamolecule nanobody-enzyme conjugates for prodrug cancer therapy. Previous efforts to create heterobifunctional protein conjugates suffered from heterogeneity in domain stoichiometry, which in part led to the failure of antibody-enzyme conjugates in clinical trials. We used the megamolecule approach to synthesize anti-HER2 nanobody-cytosine deaminase conjugates with tunable numbers of nanobody and enzyme domains in a single, covalent molecule. Linking two nanobody domains to one enzyme domain improved avidity to a human cancer cell line by 4-fold but did not increase cytotoxicity significantly due to lowered enzyme activity. In contrast, a megamolecule composed of one nanobody and two enzyme domains resulted in an 8-fold improvement in the catalytic efficiency and increased the cytotoxic effect by over 5-fold in spheroid culture, indicating that the multimeric structure allowed for an increase in local drug activation. Our work demonstrates that the megamolecule strategy can be used to study structure-function relationships of protein conjugate therapeutics with synthetic control of protein domain stoichiometry.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Antineoplastic Agents / administration & dosage
  • Antineoplastic Agents / therapeutic use*
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Enzymes / chemistry*
  • Humans
  • Prodrugs / administration & dosage
  • Prodrugs / therapeutic use*
  • Proof of Concept Study
  • Single-Domain Antibodies / chemistry*
  • Structure-Activity Relationship

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Enzymes
  • Prodrugs
  • Single-Domain Antibodies