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An Auristatin-based nanoconjugate reduces leukemia burden in a disseminated AML model

Researchers of the Nanotoxicology Unit of the the CIBER-BBN ICTS NANBIOSIS (u18-nanotoxicology-unit), leaded by Ramon Mangues and Isolda Casanova at the Research Institute of the Hospital de Sant Pau and of the NANBIOSIS (nanbiosis.es) Protein Platform (u1-protein-production-platform-ppp) leaded by Antonio Villaverde and Neus Ferrer Miralles of the Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, have developed a novel protein-Auristatin nanoconjugate that specifically targets CXCR4-overexpressing acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells. It selectively accumulates in target cancer cells expressing this receptor and deliver the toxin Auristatin within their cytosol. There, Auristatin potently blocks microtubule polymerization, provoking mitotic catastrophe, followed by apoptotic induction. Since Auristatin can kill both cycling and quiescent cells, the administration of the nanoconjugate at repeated dosage is able to dramatically reduce the leukemia burden in circulating blood, bone marrow, liver and spleen; thus, producing a potent antineoplastic effect, in the absence of systemic toxicity.

It is known that CXCR4 overexpression is involved in bopne marrow colonization by leukemic cells, displacing normal hematopoietic stem cells, an effect that associates with quiescence, resistance to classical chemotherapy, development of minimal residual disease and relapse, which leads to shorter patient survival.  Therefore, this Auristatin-based nanoconjugate could be a novel approach for the treatment of CXCR4-overexpressing AML that relapses after classical chemotherapy, offering hope to an effective clinical translation and industrial transfer, aqn activity that which could increase the effectiveness of AML treatment while reducing the adverse effect associated with current therapy.

Reference:

Pallarès V, Unzueta U, Falgàs A, Sánchez-García L, Serna N, Gallardo A, Morris GA, Alba-Castellón L, Álamo P, Sierra J, Villaverde A, Vázquez E, Casanova I, Mangues R. An Auristatin nanoconjugate targeting CXCR4+ leukemic cells blocks acute myeloid leukemia dissemination. doi: 10.1186/s13045-020-00863-9.

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A new nanoconjugate blocks acute myeloid leukemia tumor cells without harming healthy ones

Researchers from NANBIOSIS U18 Nanotoxicology Unit at the Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica de Sant Pau (IIB Sant Pau) and NANBIOSIS U1 Protein Production Platform (PPP) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) toghether with researchers of Institut de Recerca contra la Leucèmia Josep Carreras (IJC) have demonstrated the efficacy of a new nanoconjugate, designed in house, that blocks dissemination of leukemic cells in animal models of acute myeloid leukemia. These results have been published in a high impact scientific journal in the field of oncology and hematology, Journal of Hematology and Oncology. Most of the experimental work has been performed in the nanotoxicology and protein production ICTS “NANBIOSIS” platforms from CIBER-BBN.

NANBIOSIS U1 PPP has advised and helped the researchers in the production of recombinant proteins, which has allowed to successfully explore the capacity of proteins from the human microbiome, that is, from bacteria and their bacteriogages, to generate, through genetic engineering, biocompatible nanomaterials and Non-immunogenic for potential use in human clinics, such as vehicles for drug delivery or regenerative medicine.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease which usual treatment is very aggressive and produces severe side effects to the patients. In order to reduce these adverse effects, the researchers have developed a nanomedicine that is specifically targeted to the tumor cells without damaging normal cells. This new protein nanoparticle is bound to a toxin, named Auristatin, which is between 10 and 100 times more potent than the drugs typically used in the clinic. In particular, this nanoconjugate is targeted only to the cells that express in their membrane a receptor called CXCR4, which is overexpressed in leukemic cells. Thus, this nanoparticle can only enter and deliver the toxin into the cells that express this receptor. It should be noted that CXCR4 is overexpressed in a large proportion of leukemic cells in patients with poor prognostic or refractory disease, so it could have a major clinical impact on these AML patients.

The researcher team led by Ramon Mangues, from IIB Sant Pau, Antonio Villaverde and Esther Vázquez, from UAB, all members of CIBER-BBN, has demonstrated that the nanoconjugate is able to internalize in the leukemic cells through the CXCR4 receptor and kill them. In addition, they have demonstrated the capacity of this nanoparticle to block dissemination of leukemic cells in a mouse model producing without any kind of associated toxicity or adverse effects. Thanks to its targeting to leukemic cells it could help AML patients that cannot be treated with current drugs because of their high toxicity, such as this experienced by elderly patients or patients with other non-favorable characteristics that exclude conventional treatment. Furthermore, the novel nanoparticle could be used to treat patients that have developed resistance to drugs or those that have experienced relapse, since their leukemic cells would likely have high expression of the CXCR4 receptor. Hence, there is a wide range of patients that could benefit of this new treatment, which could have  a major clinical impact if its effectiveness was confirmed in further clinical trials.

It is worth pointing out that the CXCR4 receptor is overexpressed in more than 20 different cancer types, which expression associates with poor prognosis. Therefore, this nanodrug could be evaluated in the near future as a possible treatment in other tumor types of high prevalence.

The intellectual property of this nanomedicine has been licensed to the SME biotech Nanoligent, which aim is continuing the so far successful access to public and private funds to complete the preclinical development to enter clinical trials in acute myeloid leukemia, before being tested in other cancer types.

Article of reference:

An Auristatin Nanoconjugate Targeting CXCR4+ Leukemic Cells Blocks Acute Myeloid Leukemia Dissemination. Victor Pallarès, Ugutz Unzueta, Aïda Falgàs, Laura Sánchez-García, Naroa Serna, Alberto Gallardo, Gordon A Morris, Lorena Alba-Castellón, Patricia Álamo, Jorge Sierra, Antonio Villaverde, Esther Vázquez, Isolda Casanova, Ramon Mangues. DOI: 10.1186/s13045-020-00863-9

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NANBIOSIS Scientists discover a promising effective alternative to reduse relapse rates in Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma Cells

Researchers of NANBIOSIS-ICTS Units from CIBER-BBN: U1 Protein Production Platform (PPP) at IBB-UAB, led by Antoni Villaverde and Unit 18 Nanotoxicology Unit at IBB-Hospital Sant Pau, led by Ramón Mangues, have demonstrated a potent T22-PE24-H6 antineoplastic effect, especially in blocking dissemination in a CXCR4+ DLBCL model without associated toxicity. Thereby, T22-PE24-H6 promises to become an effective alternative to treat CXCR4+ disseminated refractory or relapsed DLBCL patients.

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a cancer of B cells, a type of lymphocyte that is responsible for producing antibodies. It is the most common form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma among adults, with an annual incidence of 7–8 cases per 100,000 people per year in the US and UK.

One of the major problems in the therapeutic strategies is the relapse rates. CXCR4-overexpressing cancer cells are good targets for therapy because of their association with dissemination and relapse in R-CHOP treated DLBCL patients but show a narrow therapeutic index due to their systemic toxicity wich generate the induction of severe side effects. NANBIOSIS researchers have developed a therapeutic nanostructured protein T22-PE24-H6 that incorporates exotoxin A from Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which selectively targets lymphoma cells because of its specific interaction with a highly overexpressed CXCR4 receptor (CXCR4+) in DLBCL, demonstrating a potent T22-PE24-H6 antineoplastic effect, without associated toxicity. Thereby, T22-PE24-H6 promises to become an effective alternative to treat CXCR4+ disseminated refractory or relapsed DLBCL patients

The bioluminescent follow-up of cancer cells and toxicity studies has been performed in the ICTS Nanbiosis Platform, using its CIBER-BBN Nanotoxicology Unit and Protein production has been performed by the ICTS “NANBIOSIS”, more specifically by the Protein Production Platform of CIBER-BBN/ IBB

Article of reference:

Falgàs A, Pallarès V, Serna N, Sánchez-García L, Sierra J, Gallardo A, Alba-Castellón L, Álamo P, Unzueta U, Villaverde A, Vázquez E, Mangues R, Casanova I. Selective delivery of T22-PE24-H6 to CXCR4+ diffuse large B-cell lymphoma cells leads to wide therapeutic index in a disseminated mouse model. Theranostics 2020; 10(12):5169-5180. doi:10.7150/thno.43231. Available from http://www.thno.org/v10p5169.htm

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A step forward for the design of multifunctional protein nanomaterials for cancer therapies

Researchers of NANBIOSIS Unit 1 and NANBIOSIS Unit 18, led by Prof Antoni Villaverde have published the article at the prestigious scintific magazine titled Collaborative membrane activity and receptor-dependent tumor cell targeting for precise nanoparticle delivery in CXCR4+ colorectal cancer

The researchers have shown that the combination of cell-penetrating and tumor cell-targeting peptides dramatically enhances precise tumor accumulation of protein-only nanoparticles intended for selective drug delivery, in mouse models of human colorectal cancer. This fact is a step forward for the rational design of multifunctional protein nanomaterials for improved cancer therapies.

Protein production has been partially performed by the  ICTS NANBIOSIS U1, Protein Production Platform and the nanoparticle size analysis by the U6  of NANBIOSIS Biomaterial Processing and Nanostructuring Unit. Biodistribution studies were performed by the U18 of the ICTS NANBIOSIS, Nanotoxicology Unit.

Article of reference:

Rita Sala, LauraSánchez-García, Naroa Serna, María Virtudes Céspedes, Isolda Casanova, Mònica Roldán, Alejandro Sánchez Chardig, Ugutz Unzueta, Esther Vázquez, Ramón Mangues, Antonio Villaverde. Collaborative membrane activity and receptor-dependent tumor cell targeting for precise nanoparticle delivery in CXCR4+ colorectal cancer. Acta Biomaterialia, 99, Pages 426-432. 2019,

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A CXCR4-targeted nanocarrier achieves highly selective tumor uptake in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma mouse models

Researchers of NANBIOSIS Unit 1 and NANBIOSIS Unit 18,  led by Ramón Mangues, have published the article titled CXCR4-targeted nanocarrier achieves highly selective tumor uptake in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma mouse models .

One-third of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients are refractory to initial treatment or relapse after rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone chemotherapy. In these patients, CXCR4 overexpression (CXCR4+) associates with lower overall and disease-free survival. Nanomedicine pursues active targeting to selectively deliver antitumor agents to cancer cells, a novel approach that promises to revolutionize therapy by dramatically increasing drug concentration in target tumor cells. In the study carried out at NANBIOSIS ICTS the resarchers intravenously administered a liganded protein nanocarrier (T22-GFP-H6) targeting CXCR4+ lymphoma cells in mouse models to assess its selectivity as a nanocarrier, by measuring its tissue biodistribution in cancer and normal cells. No previous protein-based nanocarrier has been described to specifically target lymphoma cells. T22-GFP-H6 achieved a highly selective tumor uptake in a CXCR4+ lymphoma subcutaneous model, as detected by fluorescent emission. We demonstrated that tumor uptake was CXCR4- dependent because pretreatment with AMD3100, a CXCR4 antagonist, significantly reduced tumor uptake. Moreover, in contrast to CXCR4+ subcutaneous models, CXCR4- tumors did not accumulate the nanocarrier. Most importantly, after intravenous injection in a disseminated model, the nanocarrier accumulated and internalized in all clinically relevant organs affected by lymphoma cells, with negligible distribution to unaffected tissues. Finally, the researchers obtained antitumor effect without toxicity in a CXCR4+ lymphoma model by T22-DITOX-H6 administration, a nanoparticle incorporating a toxin with the same structure as the nanocarrier. Hence, the use of T22-GFP-H6 nanocarrier could be a good strategy to load and deliver drugs or toxins to treat specifically CXCR4-mediated refractory or relapsed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma without systemic toxicity.

The bioluminescent follow-up of cancer cells and nanoparticle biodistribution and toxicity studies has been performed in the ICTS NANBIOSIS, using its  unit 18 of Nanotechnology of CIBER-BBN and Hospital Sant Pau The Protein production has been partially performed by the Protein Production Platform (PPP) Unit 1 of ICTS NANBIOSIS of CIBER-BBN and IBB-UAB.

Article of reference:

Aïda Falgàs, Victor Pallarès, Ugutz Unzueta, María Virtudes Céspedes, Irene Arroyo-Solera, María José Moreno, Alberto Gallardo, María Antonia Mangues, Jorge Sierra, Antonio Villaverde, Esther Vázquez, Ramon Mangues, and Isolda Casanova.  A CXCR4-targeted nanocarrier achieves highly selective tumor uptake in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma mouse models. Haematologica 2019

doi:10.3324/haematol.2018.211490

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NANBIOSIS U1 PPP will take a critical role in one of the projects selected by La Marató TV3 to fight against cancer

“Selectively humanized nanomedicines aimed at killing CXCR4 + tumor cells for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia”  is one of the Project awarded by La Marató TV3 Foundation and is participated by Dr. Antonio Villaverde, Estrategic of NANBIOSIS U1 Protein Production Platform (PPP)

The main objective of the project is the design and validation of humanized protein nanoparticles for the targeted delivery of antitumoral drugs for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. This will be done by the generation of protein-based nanoconjugates that will be targeted to the cytokine receptor CXCR4, overexpressed in this human neoplasia. The drugs will consist in a protein part, that will ofer nanoscale size, stability and CXCR4-targeting, and a small molecular weight chemical that will perform the cytotoxic effect over tumoral cells. The Protein Production Platform (U1 of NANBIOSIS), will have a critical role in the design and production of the protein amounts required for the in vivo experiments, that will be performed at the Institut de Recerca of Sant Pau Hospital.

In the 2018 La Marató TV3 edition, dedicated to cancer, 192 projects were presented, which were evaluated by 149 international scientists specialized in this field based on their quality, methodology and relevance. The management of the evaluation was carried out by the Health and Quality Assessment Agency of Catalonia, from the Department of Health. In accordance with the proposal of the Scientific Advisory Commission of the La Marató de TV3 Foundation, the Board agreed to distribute 13,149,870.76€ among the 43 scientific research projects.

The Project “Selectively humanized nanomedicines aimed at killing CXCR4 + tumor cells for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia“. Will be developed by the research groups led by:

  • Dr. Jordi Sierra GilHospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau – IRHSCSP Institut de Recerca Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau
  • Dr. Antonio Villaverde CorralesFacultat de Medicina – UAB Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
  • Dra. Lourdes Farré Vallvé Institut Català d’Oncologia – IDIBELL Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica de Bellvitge

Financing: 399.178,75 €

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Selective CXCR4+ Cancer Cell Targeting and Potent Antineoplastic Effect by a Nanostructured Version of Recombinant Ricin

Researchers of NANBIOSIS Unit 1 and NANBIOSIS Unit 18, led by Prof Antoni Villaverde have published the article “Selective CXCR4+ Cancer Cell Targeting and Potent Antineoplastic Effect by a Nanostructured Version of Recombinant Ricin” at SMALL journal.

Under the unmet need of efficient tumor‐targeting drugs for oncology, a recombinant version of the plant toxin ricin (the modular protein T22‐mRTA‐H6) is engineered to self‐assemble as protein‐only, CXCR4‐targeted nanoparticles. The soluble version of the construct self‐organizes as regular 11 nm planar entities that are highly cytotoxic in cultured CXCR4+ cancer cells upon short time exposure, with a determined IC50 in the nanomolar order of magnitude. The chemical inhibition of CXCR4 binding sites in exposed cells results in a dramatic reduction of the cytotoxic potency, proving the receptor‐dependent mechanism of cytotoxicity. The insoluble version of T22‐mRTA‐H6 is, contrarily, moderately active, indicating that free, nanostructured protein is the optimal drug form. In animal models of acute myeloid leukemia, T22‐mRTA‐H6 nanoparticles show an impressive and highly selective therapeutic effect, dramatically reducing the leukemia cells affectation of clinically relevant organs. Functionalized T22‐mRTA‐H6 nanoparticles are then promising prototypes of chemically homogeneous, highly potent antitumor nanostructured toxins for precise oncotherapies based on self‐mediated intracellular drug delivery.

See article: https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.201800665

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Switching cell penetrating and CXCR4-binding activities of nanoscale-organized arginine-rich peptides

Scientists of Units 1 and 18 of NANBIOSIS are coathors of the article  “Switching cell penetrating and CXCR4-binding activities of nanoscale-organized arginine-rich peptides” published by Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine

Arginine-rich protein motifs have been described as potent cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) but also as rather specific ligands of the cell surface chemokine receptor CXCR4, involved in the infection by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Polyarginines are commonly used to functionalize nanoscale vehicles for gene therapy and drug delivery, aimed to enhance cell penetrability of the therapeutic cargo. However, under which conditions these peptides do act as either unspecific or specific ligands is unknown. The authors have here explored the cell penetrability of differently charged polyarginines in two alternative presentations, namely as unassembled fusion proteins or assembled in multimeric protein nanoparticles. By this, they have observed that arginine-rich peptides switch between receptor-mediated and receptor-independent mechanisms of cell penetration. The relative weight of these activities is determined by the electrostatic charge of the construct and the oligomerizationstatus of the nanoscale material, both regulatable by conventional protein engineering approaches

Protein production has been partially performed by the ICTS “NANBIOSIS”, more specifically by the U1. Protein Production Platform (PPP), whereas the in vivo biodistribution assays were performed in the NANBIOSIS U18. Nanotoxicology Unit,

Article of reference:

Marianna Teixeira de Pinho Favaro, Naroa Serna, Laura Sánchez-García, Rafael Cubarsi, Mónica Roldán, Alejandro Sánchez-Chardi, Ugutz Unzueta, Ramón Mangues, Neus Ferrer-Miralles, Adriano Rodrigues Azzoni, Esther Vázquez, Antonio Villaverde. Switching cell penetrating and CXCR4-binding activities of nanoscale-organized arginine-rich peptides Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine Volume 14, Issue 6, August 2018, Pages 1777-1786 

 

 

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