Abstract 1997: 2C5 antibody modified dendrimer-based mixed micelles for the treatment of multidrug resistant cancers
Authors: Yalamarty Satya Siva Kishan , Filipczak Nina , Li Xiang , Pathrikar Tanvi Vinod , Cotter Colin , Torchilin Vladimir P. 
Published: April 2023

Purpose: A major hurdle in chemotherapy is multidrug resistance (MDR) observed in tumors. Downregulation of efflux proteins such as P-glycoprotein (P-gp) using small interfering RNA (siRNA) can be an effective way to treat resistant tumors. In this study, monoclonal antibody 2C5 (mAb 2C5) - PEG7k-DOPE conjugates were post-inserted into the mixed dendrimer micelles containing generation 4 (G4) polyamidoamine (PAMAM)-PEG2k-DOPE and PEG5k-DOPE. The inherent amphiphilic nature of DOPE conjugates causes the copolymers to self-assemble to form a micelle and encapsulate hydrophobic chemotherapeutic drug in its core. The siRNA electrostatically binds to the cationic charges on the G4 PAMAM dendrimer. The tumor-specific mAb 2C5 on the surface of these nano-preparations resulted in improved tumor targeting.

Methods: G4 PAMAM-PEG2k-DOPE was prepared by conjugating G4 PAMAM with para-nitrophenol (pNP)-PEG2k-DOPE. To prepare 2C5-PEG7k-DOPE, mAb 2C5 was mixed with micelles containing pNP-PEG7k-DOPE and PEG5k-DOPE in sodium citrate buffer at pH 5.0 and later adjusted the pH to 8.0. In vitro evaluation of the targeted and non-targeted micelles were performed in both MDA-MB-231 and SKOV-3TR resistant cell lines. Further a xenograft MDA-MB-231 in vivo mice tumor models were performed.

Results: The 2C5-conjugated mixed dendrimer micelles have a uniform size distribution with a slightly positive zeta potential. They show a stable size and zeta potential for 20 days. The morphology of the 2C5 modified micelles was confirmed using TEM imaging. A higher cellular association was observed in the micelles with the 2C5 antibody targeting using fluorescence imaging (DOPE-FITC tagged micelle) in both the cell lines. At 30 minutes the 2C5 targeted mixed dendrimer micelles showed high cellular uptake and was analyzed using flow cytometry. We further evaluated the P-gp downregulation using western blot and observed a significant downregulation of P-gp levels in the targeted formulation versus the non-targeted formulation. The in vivo tumor growth inhibition study in nude NCG 572 MDA-MB-231 tumor bearing mice showed that the immuno-micelles loaded with siMDR-1 and chemotherapeutics resulted in significantly increased therapeutic efficacy compared to non-modified mixed dendrimer micelles.

Conclusions: We have evaluated the 2C5 antibody-modified mixed dendrimer micelles in different cell models, in addition to the models tested in our previous studies. We have successfully established the stability of the formulation in this study and established a 20-day shelf-life. Cellular association, internalization and P-gp downregulation studies show the superiority of the 2C5 modified dendrimer micelles upon non-targeted preparations or free actives.

Citation Format: Satya Siva Kishan Yalamarty, Nina Filipczak, Xiang Li, Tanvi Vinod Pathrikar, Colin Cotter, Vladimir P. Torchilin. 2C5 antibody modified dendrimer-based mixed micelles for the treatment of multidrug resistant cancers [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 1997.