The specific transport of bioactive proteins into designated target cells is an interesting and challenging perspective for the generation of innovative biopharmaceuticals. Natural protein cytotoxins perform this task with outstanding efficacy. They enter cells with receptor-targeted specificity, respond to changing intracellular microenvironments, and by various mechanisms translocate their cytotoxic protein subunit into the cytosol. Here we imitate this toxin-based delivery strategy in an artificial setting, by bioreversible conjugation of a cytotoxic cargo protein (RNase A) with receptor-targeting PEG-folate and the pH-specific endosomolytic peptide INF7 as synthetic delivery domains. Covalent modification of the cargo protein was achieved using the pH-labile AzMMMan linker and copper-free click chemistry with DBCO-modified delivery modules. This linkage is supposed to enable traceless intracellular release of the RNase A after exposure to the endosomal weakly acidic environment. Delivery of RNase A via this polycation-free delivery strategy resulted in high cytotoxicity against receptor-positive KB tumor cells only when both PEG-folate and INF7 were attached.
Keywords: endosomal escape; immunotoxin; pH-sensitive; protein delivery; protein transduction; receptor targeting.