Natural Product Splicing Inhibitors: A New Class of Antibody-Drug Conjugate (ADC) Payloads

Bioconjug Chem. 2016 Aug 17;27(8):1880-8. doi: 10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.6b00291. Epub 2016 Jul 28.

Abstract

There is a considerable ongoing work to identify new cytotoxic payloads that are appropriate for antibody-based delivery, acting via mechanisms beyond DNA damage and microtubule disruption, highlighting their importance to the field of cancer therapeutics. New modes of action will allow a more diverse set of tumor types to be targeted and will allow for possible mechanisms to evade the drug resistance that will invariably develop to existing payloads. Spliceosome inhibitors are known to be potent antiproliferative agents capable of targeting both actively dividing and quiescent cells. A series of thailanstatin-antibody conjugates were prepared in order to evaluate their potential utility in the treatment of cancer. After exploring a variety of linkers, we found that the most potent antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) were derived from direct conjugation of the carboxylic acid-containing payload to surface lysines of the antibody (a "linker-less" conjugate). Activity of these lysine conjugates was correlated to drug-loading, a feature not typically observed for other payload classes. The thailanstatin-conjugates were potent in high target expressing cells, including multidrug-resistant lines, and inactive in nontarget expressing cells. Moreover, these ADCs were shown to promote altered splicing products in N87 cells in vitro, consistent with their putative mechanism of action. In addition, the exposure of the ADCs was sufficient to result in excellent potency in a gastric cancer xenograft model at doses as low as 1.5 mg/kg that was superior to the clinically approved ADC T-DM1. The results presented herein therefore open the door to further exploring splicing inhibition as a potential new mode-of-action for novel ADCs.

MeSH terms

  • ATP Binding Cassette Transporter, Subfamily B, Member 1 / metabolism
  • Animals
  • Biological Products / chemistry*
  • Carboxylic Acids / chemistry
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Transformation, Neoplastic
  • Cysteine / chemistry
  • Humans
  • Immunoconjugates / chemistry*
  • Immunoconjugates / pharmacokinetics
  • Immunoconjugates / pharmacology
  • Lysine / chemistry
  • Maleimides / chemistry
  • Mice
  • Pyrans / chemistry
  • Tissue Distribution

Substances

  • ATP Binding Cassette Transporter, Subfamily B, Member 1
  • Biological Products
  • Carboxylic Acids
  • Immunoconjugates
  • Maleimides
  • Pyrans
  • thailanstatin A
  • maleimide
  • Lysine
  • Cysteine