Dual Inhibitors-Loaded Nanotherapeutics that Target Kinase Signaling Pathways Synergize with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor

Anujan Ramesh; Siva Kumar Natarajan; Dipika Nandi; Ashish Kulkarni

doi:10.1007/s12195-019-00576-1

Dual Inhibitors-Loaded Nanotherapeutics that Target Kinase Signaling Pathways Synergize with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor

Cell Mol Bioeng. 2019 May 21;12(5):357-373. doi: 10.1007/s12195-019-00576-1. eCollection 2019 Oct.

Authors

Anujan Ramesh^#¹, Siva Kumar Natarajan^#², Dipika Nandi³, Ashish Kulkarni^{1

3

4

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA USA.
² Division of Engineering in Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA.
³ Department of Veterinary and Animal Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA USA.
⁴ Center for Bioactive Delivery, Institute for Applied Life Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA USA.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Introduction: Immune checkpoint inhibitors that boost cytotoxic T cell-based immune responses have emerged as one of the most promising approaches in cancer treatment. However, it is increasingly being realized that T cell activation needs to be rationally combined with molecularly targeted therapeutics for a maximal anti-tumor outcome. Currently, two oncogenic drivers, MAPK and PI3K-mTOR have emerged as the two main molecular targets for combining with immunotherapy. However, there are major challenges in enabling such combinations: first, such combinations can result in high rates of toxicity. Second, while, these molecular targets could be driving tumor progression, they are essential for activation of the immune cells. So, the kinase inhibitors and immunotherapy can antagonize each other.

Objectives: We rationalized that the synergistic combination of kinase inhibitors and immunotherapy could be enabled by dual inhibitors-loaded supramolecular nanotherapeutics (DiLN) that can co-deliver PI3K- and MAPK-inhibitors to the cancer cells and activate immune response by T cell-modulating immunotherapy, resulting in greater anti-tumor efficacy while minimizing toxicity.

Methods: We engineered DiLNs by designing the amphiphilic building blocks (both drugs and co-lipids) that enables supramolecular nanoassembly. DiLNs were tested for their physiochemical properties including size, morphology, stability and drug release kinetics profiles. The efficacy of DiLNs was tested in drug-resistant cells such as BRAF^V600E melanoma (D4M), Clear cell ovarian carcinoma (TOV21G) cells. The tumor inhibition efficiency of DiLNs in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitor antibody was studied in syngeneic D4M animal model.

Results: DiLNs were stable for over a month and released the drugs in a sustained manner. In vitro cytotoxicity studies in D4M and TOV21G cells showed that DiLNs were significantly more effective than free drugs. In vivo studies showed that the combination of DiLNs with anti PD-L1 antibody resulted in superior antitumor effect and survival.

Conclusion: This study shows that the rational combination of DiLNs that target multiple oncogenic signaling pathways with immune checkpoint inhibitors could emerge as an effective strategy to improve immunotherapeutic response against drug resistant tumors.

Keywords: Cancer; Combination therapy; Immunotherapy; Kinase signaling; Supramolecular nanoparticles.