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Liapis V, Zysk A, DeNichilo M, Zinonos I, Hay S, Panagopoulos V, Shoubridge A, Difelice C, Ponomarev V, Ingman W, Atkins GJ, Findlay DM, Zannettino ACW, Evdokiou A. Anticancer efficacy of the hypoxia-activated prodrug evofosfamide is enhanced in combination with proapoptotic receptor agonists against osteosarcoma. Cancer Med 2017; 6:2164-2176. [PMID: 28799237 PMCID: PMC5603834 DOI: 10.1002/cam4.1115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2017] [Revised: 03/21/2017] [Accepted: 03/31/2017] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Tumor hypoxia is a major cause of treatment failure for a variety of malignancies. However, hypoxia also leads to treatment opportunities as demonstrated by the development of compounds that target regions of hypoxia within tumors. Evofosfamide is a hypoxia‐activated prodrug that is created by linking the hypoxia‐seeking 2‐nitroimidazole moiety to the cytotoxic bromo‐isophosphoramide mustard (Br‐IPM). When evofosfamide is delivered to hypoxic regions of tumors, the DNA cross‐linking toxin, Br‐IPM, is released leading to cell death. This study assessed the anticancer efficacy of evofosfamide in combination with the Proapoptotic Receptor Agonists (PARAs) dulanermin and drozitumab against human osteosarcoma in vitro and in an intratibial murine model of osteosarcoma. Under hypoxic conditions in vitro, evofosfamide cooperated with dulanermin and drozitumab, resulting in the potentiation of cytotoxicity to osteosarcoma cells. In contrast, under the same conditions, primary human osteoblasts were resistant to treatment. Animals transplanted with osteosarcoma cells directly into their tibiae developed mixed osteosclerotic/osteolytic bone lesions and consequently developed lung metastases 3 weeks post cancer cell transplantation. Tumor burden in the bone was reduced by evofosfamide treatment alone and in combination with drozitumab and prevented osteosarcoma‐induced bone destruction while also reducing the growth of pulmonary metastases. These results suggest that evofosfamide may be an attractive therapeutic agent, with strong anticancer activity alone or in combination with either drozitumab or dulanermin against osteosarcoma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vasilios Liapis
- Discipline of Surgery, Breast Cancer Research Unit, Basil Hetzel Institute and Centre for Personalised Cancer Medicine, University of Adelaide, Woodville, South Australia, Australia
| | - Aneta Zysk
- Discipline of Surgery, Breast Cancer Research Unit, Basil Hetzel Institute and Centre for Personalised Cancer Medicine, University of Adelaide, Woodville, South Australia, Australia
| | - Mark DeNichilo
- Vascular Biology and Cell Trafficking Laboratory, Centre for Cancer Biology, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Irene Zinonos
- Discipline of Surgery, Breast Cancer Research Unit, Basil Hetzel Institute and Centre for Personalised Cancer Medicine, University of Adelaide, Woodville, South Australia, Australia
| | - Shelley Hay
- Discipline of Surgery, Breast Cancer Research Unit, Basil Hetzel Institute and Centre for Personalised Cancer Medicine, University of Adelaide, Woodville, South Australia, Australia
| | - Vasilios Panagopoulos
- Discipline of Surgery, Breast Cancer Research Unit, Basil Hetzel Institute and Centre for Personalised Cancer Medicine, University of Adelaide, Woodville, South Australia, Australia
| | - Alexandra Shoubridge
- Discipline of Surgery, Breast Cancer Research Unit, Basil Hetzel Institute and Centre for Personalised Cancer Medicine, University of Adelaide, Woodville, South Australia, Australia
| | - Christopher Difelice
- Discipline of Surgery, Breast Cancer Research Unit, Basil Hetzel Institute and Centre for Personalised Cancer Medicine, University of Adelaide, Woodville, South Australia, Australia
| | - Vladimir Ponomarev
- Department of Radiology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York
| | - Wendy Ingman
- Discipline of Surgery, School of Medicine at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, University of Adelaide, Woodville, Australia.,Robinson Research Institute, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
| | - Gerald J Atkins
- Discipline of Orthopaedics and Trauma, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - David M Findlay
- Discipline of Orthopaedics and Trauma, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Andrew C W Zannettino
- School of Medical Sciences, Myeloma Research Laboratory Cancer Theme, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), Faculty of Health Science, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
| | - Andreas Evdokiou
- Discipline of Surgery, Breast Cancer Research Unit, Basil Hetzel Institute and Centre for Personalised Cancer Medicine, University of Adelaide, Woodville, South Australia, Australia
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Shim J, Huang A, Miller AS. Development of a bioassay as a measure of drozitumab-mediated apoptosis induced by soluble Fc gamma receptors. J Immunol Methods 2017; 448:26-33. [PMID: 28506821 DOI: 10.1016/j.jim.2017.05.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2017] [Revised: 05/05/2017] [Accepted: 05/11/2017] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Drozitumab is an agonistic therapeutic monoclonal antibody (mAb) against the pro-apoptotic death receptor 5 (DR5). In vitro cell killing assays using drozitumab have traditionally required cross-linking with anti-Fc antibody to amplify the pro-apoptotic signal, although drozitumab shows activity in in vivo tumor models without artificial cross-linking. Recently it has been shown that FcγR expressing cells play an important role in the activity of drozitumab by mediating cross-linking in vivo (Wilson et al., 2011). To provide a more biologically relevant alternative to cross-linking with anti-Fc antibody in in vitro bioassays, methods for cross-linking with soluble FcγR extracellular domain (ECD) were developed in this work. FcγR cross-linking methods developed in this work were assessed in solution, bead-bound, and plate-bound assay formats, as well as a cell-based assay format. The assays showed reproducible drozitumab dose-response curves in the concentration range of 5-20,000ng/mL and had acceptable precision and accuracy. The assays are also able to detect degradative changes in drozitumab samples subjected to thermal stress. The data suggest that FcγR cross-linking of drozitumab is a viable alternative to anti-Fc cross-linking of drozitumab to measure effector mediated apoptosis of drozitumab in vitro.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeongsup Shim
- Biological Technologies-Analytical Development and Quality Control, Genentech, Inc., 1 DNA Way, South San Francisco, CA 94080, USA.
| | - Ally Huang
- Biological Technologies-Analytical Development and Quality Control, Genentech, Inc., 1 DNA Way, South San Francisco, CA 94080, USA
| | - Aaron S Miller
- Biological Technologies-Analytical Development and Quality Control, Genentech, Inc., 1 DNA Way, South San Francisco, CA 94080, USA
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Eng JWL, Mace TA, Sharma R, Twum DYF, Peng P, Gibbs JF, Pitoniak R, Reed CB, Abrams SI, Repasky EA, Hylander BL. Pancreatic cancer stem cells in patient pancreatic xenografts are sensitive to drozitumab, an agonistic antibody against DR5. J Immunother Cancer 2016; 4:33. [PMID: 27330806 PMCID: PMC4915140 DOI: 10.1186/s40425-016-0136-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2015] [Accepted: 05/16/2016] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Therapeutic resistance and tumor recurrence are two major hurdles in the treatment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Recent findings suggest that both of these attributes are associated with a small subset of pancreatic tumor initiating cancer stem cells (CSCs). Here, we demonstrate that drozitumab, a human agonistic monoclonal antibody which binds the death receptor DR5, selectively eliminates CSCs, resulting in tumor growth inhibition and even regression of pancreatic tumors. Methods To examine the efficacy of drozitumab against pancreatic CSCs, we treated patient-derived pancreatic tumor xenografts (PDX) in immunocompromised SCID mice and evaluated tumor control. To assess apoptosis following drozitumab treatment, we identified the CSCs as CD24+, CD44+, and EpCAM+ by FACS analysis, and measured in vivo and in vitro levels of cleaved caspase-3. Lastly, in vitro evaluation of DR5 re-expression was performed using isolated patient pancreatic cancer xenograft cells along with the cell line, Panc-1. After treatment with drozitumab, the remaining DR5- cells were assessed by FACS analysis for DR5 expression at the cell surface at 8, 24 and 48 h post-treatment. All in vivo growth data was analyzed by 2-way Anova, incidence data was analyzed using Mantel-Cox, and in vitro studies statistics were performed with a t-test. Results We find that while 75–100 % of CSCs express DR5, only 25 % of bulk tumor cells express the death receptors at any one time. Consequently, drozitumab treatment of SCID mice bearing PDX kills higher percentages of CSCs than bulk tumor cells. Additionally, SCID mice implanted with isolated CSCs and then immediately treated with drozitumab fail to ever develop tumors. In vitro studies demonstrate that while drozitumab treatment reduces the DR5+ cell population, the remaining tumor cells begin to express DR5, suggesting a mechanism by which continuous administration of drozitumab can ultimately result in tumor regression despite the initially low percentage of DR5+ cells. Conclusions Overall, our work reveals that treatment of pancreatic tumors with the drozitumab can lead to long-term tumor control by targeting both bulk cells and CSCs. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40425-016-0136-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jason W-L Eng
- Department of Immunology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY 14263 USA
| | - Thomas A Mace
- Department of Immunology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY 14263 USA.,Present Address: Division of Medical Oncology, Department Internal Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210 USA
| | - Rohit Sharma
- Department of Surgical Oncology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, 14263 NY USA.,Present Address: Department of Surgery, Lehigh Valley Physician Group, Allentown, 18103 PA USA
| | - Danielle Y F Twum
- Department of Immunology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY 14263 USA
| | - Peng Peng
- Department of Immunology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY 14263 USA
| | - John F Gibbs
- Department of Surgical Oncology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, 14263 NY USA.,Present address: Department of Surgery Chief of Surgical Oncology, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, 1945 State Highway 33, Neptune, NJ 07753 USA
| | - Rosemarie Pitoniak
- Department of Immunology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY 14263 USA
| | - Chelsey B Reed
- Department of Immunology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY 14263 USA
| | - Scott I Abrams
- Department of Immunology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY 14263 USA
| | - Elizabeth A Repasky
- Department of Immunology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY 14263 USA
| | - Bonnie L Hylander
- Department of Immunology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY 14263 USA
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Dine JL, O'Sullivan CC, Voeller D, Greer YE, Chavez KJ, Conway CM, Sinclair S, Stone B, Amiri-Kordestani L, Merchant AS, Hewitt SM, Steinberg SM, Swain SM, Lipkowitz S. The TRAIL receptor agonist drozitumab targets basal B triple-negative breast cancer cells that express vimentin and Axl. Breast Cancer Res Treat 2016; 155:235-51. [PMID: 26759246 DOI: 10.1007/s10549-015-3673-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2015] [Accepted: 12/29/2015] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
Previously, we found that GST-tagged tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis inducing ligand preferentially killed triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells with a mesenchymal phenotype by activating death receptor 5 (DR5). The purpose of this study was to explore the sensitivity of breast cancer cell lines to drozitumab, a clinically tested DR5-specific agonist; identify potential biomarkers of drozitumab-sensitive breast cancer cells; and determine if those biomarkers were present in tumors from patients with TNBC. We evaluated viability, caspase activity, and sub-G1 DNA content in drozitumab-treated breast cancer cell lines and we characterized expression of potential biomarkers by immunoblot. Expression levels of vimentin and Axl were then explored in 177 TNBC samples from a publically available cDNA microarray dataset and by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in tumor tissue samples obtained from 53 African-American women with TNBC. Drozitumab-induced apoptosis in mesenchymal TNBC cell lines but not in cell lines from other breast cancer subtypes. The drozitumab-sensitive TNBC cell lines expressed the mesenchymal markers vimentin and Axl. Vimentin and Axl mRNA and protein were expressed in a subset of human TNBC tumors. By IHC, ~15 % of TNBC tumors had vimentin and Axl expression in the top quartile for both. These findings indicate that drozitumab-sensitive mesenchymal TNBC cells express vimentin and Axl, which can be identified in a subset of human TNBC tumors. Thus, vimentin and Axl may be useful to identify TNBC patients who would be most likely to benefit from a DR5 agonist.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer L Dine
- Women's Malignancies Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Building 10, Room 4B54, Bethesda, MD, USA.,Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.,Sinclair School of Nursing, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
| | - Ciara C O'Sullivan
- Women's Malignancies Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Building 10, Room 4B54, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Donna Voeller
- Women's Malignancies Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Building 10, Room 4B54, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Yoshimi E Greer
- Women's Malignancies Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Building 10, Room 4B54, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Kathryn J Chavez
- Women's Malignancies Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Building 10, Room 4B54, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Catherine M Conway
- Laboratory of Pathology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Sarah Sinclair
- Washington Cancer Institute, MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Brandon Stone
- Women's Malignancies Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Building 10, Room 4B54, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Laleh Amiri-Kordestani
- Women's Malignancies Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Building 10, Room 4B54, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Anand S Merchant
- Center for Cancer Research Bioinformatics Core, Advanced Biomedical Computing Center, SAIC-Frederick, Frederick, MD, USA
| | - Stephen M Hewitt
- Sinclair School of Nursing, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
| | - Seth M Steinberg
- Biostatistics & Data Management Section, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Sandra M Swain
- Washington Cancer Institute, MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Stanley Lipkowitz
- Women's Malignancies Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Building 10, Room 4B54, Bethesda, MD, USA.
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