Enhanced drug internalization and therapeutic efficacy of PEGylated nanoparticles by one-step formulation with anti-mPEG bispecific antibody in intrinsic drug-resistant breast cancer

Biomater Sci. 2019 Aug 1;7(8):3404-3417. doi: 10.1039/c9bm00323a. Epub 2019 Jun 28.

Abstract

For those patients with HER2-overexpressing breast cancer, treatment with PEGylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) is inefficacious due to the intrinsic low sensitivity to doxorubicin. A very large increase in drug accumulation by active targeting may enhance the therapeutic efficacy of PLD. We established a humanized bispecific antibody (BsAb; mPEG × HER2) which has dual specificity for methoxy-polyethylene glycol (mPEG) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) to enhance the specificity, internalization and anticancer activity of PLD for cancer cells that overexpress HER2. One-step formulation of PLD with mPEG × HER2 converted the PLD into HER2 targeted liposomes that were stable at 4 °C in PBS as well as at 37 °C in the presence of serum. αHER2/PLD induced receptor-mediated endocytosis and enhanced doxorubicin accumulation in MCF7/HER2 (HER2-amplified) breast cancer cells. αHER2/PLD also displayed more than 200-fold increased cytotoxicity to MCF7/HER2 cells and 28-fold increased cytotoxicity to drug-resistant MDA-MB-361 cells with a physical deletion of the TOP2A gene. αHER2/PLD specifically accumulated doxorubicin in the nucleus of cancer cells in tumor-bearing mice and produced significantly greater antitumor activity against MCF7/HER2 (P < 0.0001) and MDA-MB-361 (P < 0.05) tumors as compared to untargeted PLD. Furthermore, the cardiotoxicity of αHER2/PLD was similar to that of PLD in human cardiomyocytes and in mice. Our results indicate that the one-step formulation of PLD by mPEG × HER2 is a simple method to confer tumor specificity, increase drug internalization and enhance the anticancer activity of PLD against HER2-overexpressing and doxorubicin-resistant breast cancer.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antibodies, Bispecific / immunology*
  • Antineoplastic Agents / chemistry
  • Antineoplastic Agents / metabolism*
  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology*
  • Biological Transport
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Doxorubicin / chemistry
  • Doxorubicin / pharmacology
  • Drug Carriers / chemistry
  • Drug Carriers / metabolism
  • Drug Carriers / toxicity
  • Drug Compounding
  • Drug Resistance, Neoplasm / drug effects*
  • Humans
  • MCF-7 Cells
  • Mice
  • Myocytes, Cardiac / drug effects
  • Nanoparticles / chemistry*
  • Polyethylene Glycols / chemistry*
  • Polyethylene Glycols / metabolism
  • Polyethylene Glycols / toxicity
  • Receptor, ErbB-2 / immunology
  • Receptor, ErbB-2 / metabolism

Substances

  • Antibodies, Bispecific
  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Drug Carriers
  • Polyethylene Glycols
  • Doxorubicin
  • monomethoxypolyethylene glycol
  • ERBB2 protein, human
  • Receptor, ErbB-2