Enzyme-activatable polymer–drug conjugate augments tumour penetration and treatment efficacy
Menée in vitro et à l'aide de modèles murins, cette étude met en évidence l'intérêt, pour améliorer la pénétration du médicament dans les cellules tumorales et l'efficacité du traitement, d'une stratégie consistant à utiliser un conjugué polymère-camptothécine sensible à la gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, une enzyme surexprimée à la surface des cellules tumorales
A tumour microenvironment imposes barriers to the passive diffusion of molecules, which renders tumour penetration an unresolved obstacle to an effective anticancer drug delivery. Here, we present a responsive camptothecin–polymer conjugate that actively infiltrates throughout the tumour tissue through transcytosis. When the conjugate passes on the luminal endothelial cells of the tumour blood vessels or extravasates into the tumour interstitium, the overexpressed γ-glutamyl transpeptidase on the cell membrane cleaves the γ-glutamyl moieties of the conjugate to generate positively charged primary amines. The resulting cationic conjugate undergoes caveolae-mediated endocytosis and transcytosis, which enables transendothelial and transcellular transport and a relatively uniform distribution throughout the tumour. The conjugate showed a potent antitumour activity in mouse models that led to the eradication of small solid tumours (~100 mm3) and regression of large established tumours with clinically relevant sizes (~500 mm3), and significantly extended the survival of orthotopic pancreatic tumour-bearing mice compared to that with the first-line chemotherapeutic drug gemcitabine.