Zhou Shurong, Su Ting, Cheng Furong, Cole Janet, Liu Xiang, Zhang Bei, Alam Shaheer, Liu Jinze, Zhu Guizhi
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Biointerfaces Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Department of Pharmaceutics and Center for Pharmaceutical Engineering and Sciences, School of Pharmacy, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23298, USA.
Mol Ther Nucleic Acids. 2024 Jan 24;35(1):102126. doi: 10.1016/j.omtn.2024.102126. eCollection 2024 Mar 12.
Activating cyclic GMP-AMP synthase-stimulator of interferon genes (cGAS-STING) holds great potential for cancer immunotherapy by eliciting type-I interferon (IFN-I) responses. Yet, current approaches to cGAS-STING activation rely on STING agonists, which suffer from difficult formulation, poor pharmacokinetics, and marginal clinical therapeutic efficacy. Here, we report nature-inspired oligonucleotide, Svg3, as a cGAS agonist for cGAS-STING activation in tumor combination immunotherapy. The hairpin-shaped Svg3 strongly binds to cGAS and enhances phase separation to form Svg3-cGAS liquid-like droplets. This results in cGAS-specific immunoactivation and robust IFN-I responses. Remarkably, Svg3 outperforms several state-of-the-art STING agonists in murine and human cells/tissues. Nanoparticle-delivered Svg3 reduces tumor immunosuppression and potentiates immune checkpoint blockade therapeutic efficacy of multiple syngeneic tumor models in wild-type mice, but in neither nor mice. Overall, these results demonstrate the great potential of Svg3 as a cGAS agonistic oligonucleotide for cancer combination immunotherapy.
激活环磷酸鸟苷-腺苷合成酶-干扰素基因刺激因子(cGAS-STING)通过引发I型干扰素(IFN-I)反应在癌症免疫治疗中具有巨大潜力。然而,目前激活cGAS-STING的方法依赖于STING激动剂,这些激动剂存在制剂困难、药代动力学不佳以及临床治疗效果有限等问题。在此,我们报道了受自然启发的寡核苷酸Svg3,作为一种用于肿瘤联合免疫治疗中激活cGAS-STING的cGAS激动剂。发夹状的Svg3与cGAS紧密结合并增强相分离,形成Svg3-cGAS液滴样结构。这导致cGAS特异性免疫激活和强烈的IFN-I反应。值得注意的是,在小鼠和人类细胞/组织中,Svg3的表现优于几种先进的STING激动剂。纳米颗粒递送的Svg3可减轻肿瘤免疫抑制,并增强野生型小鼠中多种同基因肿瘤模型的免疫检查点阻断治疗效果,但在 小鼠和 小鼠中均无此效果。总体而言,这些结果证明了Svg3作为一种用于癌症联合免疫治疗的cGAS激动性寡核苷酸具有巨大潜力。