Supramolecular Site-Specific Antibody Drug Conjugates Outperform Cysteine-Conjugated Analogs in Pancreatic Peritoneal Carcinomatosis

Abstract

Antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) are a burgeoning class of targeted therapies. However, limitations in their synthesis and efficiency of payload delivery restrict their clinical utility. Here we report a supramolecular assembly (SMA) ADC conjugation method, which allows site-specific, uniform drug loading, resulting in an enhanced pharmacokinetic profile and in vivo efficacy. This peptide conjugation strategy relies on spontaneous heterotetrameric coiled-coil formation between a pair of peptides appended on the C-terminus and a drug-loaded complementary pair in aqueous solution. Pairing this SMA conjugation with an antibody that targets the dual-endothlin-1/VEGF signal peptide receptor (DEspR), a pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) specific receptor, retains antibody binding and plasma stability. When the anti-DEspR monoclonal antibody is conjugated with monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE), the ensuing ADC internalizes following cell surface binding and induces selected cell death in multiple DEspR positive PDAC cell lines. In vivo, the ADC exhibits favorable pharmacokinetics, high tumor specificity, and improves overall survival in a rat orthotopic model of pancreatic peritoneal carcinomatosis, compared to conventional ADC conjugation. A heterotetrameric coiled-coil structure enables the efficient synthesis of a potent ADC, further documenting the versatility of supramolecular scaffolds as key orthogonal building block for site-specific conjugation in biopharmaceutical and biomaterial drug delivery systems. One Sentence Summary Combining site-specific conjugation of monomethyl auristatin E, via the use of biologically inspired heterotetrameric coiled-coils, with a tumor-selective antibody targeting the dual-endothlin-1/VEGF signal peptide receptor affords a highly effective, ADC, which improves survival in a rat orthotopic model of pancreatic peritoneal carcinomatosis compared to standard cysteine-conjugated analogues with higher drug loading.