Abstract 5089: Therapeutically targeting endometrial cancer by ICAM1 antibody-drug conjugates
Authors: Xie Hanfei , Sun Lu , Yao ShiLi , Guo Peng , Zhang YingLi 
Published: March 2024

Background: Endometrial cancer is the most frequently occurring gynecologic cancer in developed countries and the third leading cause of cancer deaths among women. It remains one of the few malignant tumors with rapidly increasing mortality and morbidity. Patients with recurrent or metastatic endometrial cancer continue to experience poor outcomes. Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) represent a class of targeted therapeutic modalities that offer biomarker-based therapeutic options for patients with endometrial cancer. In this study, we proposed to identify a novel molecular target for the preclinical development of an ADC for endometrial cancer-targeted therapy.

Methods: Firstly, to determine the level of target expression within endometrial cancer tissue components as well as differences, we performed immunohistochemical staining of human endometrial cancer and paracancerous tissue. Secondly, the expression of the target on the cell membrane surface was quantitated and qualitatively verified using flow cytometry and single-photon confocal microscopy. In the third step, an endocytosis assay was used to verify the endocytosis of the target antibody by EC cells. Confocal imaging can directly observe the endocytosis of the target antibody, and flow cytometry can be analyzed and quantified. Co-localization experiments with antibody fluorescence can verify the specific site where the target antibody is endocytosed into cancer cells. We then designed and characterized two targeted ADCs. Next, the in vitro inhibitory activities of these ADCs against endometrial cancer cell lines and normal cells were evaluated using the CCK8 assay. Finally, we established a cell line-derived xenograft (CDX) model of endometrial cancer to validate the in vivo efficacy and bio-safety of the ADCs.

Results: We have determined a correlation between ICAM1 overexpression and EC, and IHC staining of patient tissues showed significantly higher levels of ICAM1 expression in endometrial cancer tissues than in paracancerous tissues. The high cell surface expression of ICAM1 was verified in a panel of various human endometrial cancer cell lines. Moreover, two ICAM1 ADCs were established using clinically-approved ADC linker and payload combinations. It was visually confirmed that ICAM1 ADCs selectively recognize endometrial tumors and efficiently enter endometrial cells via antigen-mediated endocytosis. We compared the anti-tumor activity of ICAM1 ADCs with standard-of-care chemodrugs, and ICAM1 ADCs outperformed chemodrugs in the CDX model of endometrial cancer without toxicity.

Conclusion: We identified that ICAM1 is a promising ADC target for endometrial cancer and confirmed the potent anti-tumor activity and biosafety of ICAM1 ADCs in vitro and in vivo, warranting further pre-clinical and clinical investigations.

Citation Format: Hanfei Xie, Lu Sun, ShiLi Yao, Peng Guo, YingLi Zhang. Therapeutically targeting endometrial cancer by ICAM1 antibody-drug conjugates [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 5089.